March 26, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

SPRING EXHIBITION

"A Brief History of Dolls"

TO OPEN AT THE SOUTHOLD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SOUTHOLD, NY.  The Southold Historical Society is pleased to announce the opening of its spring exhibition, "A Brief History of Dolls."  The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, April 17, 2010 and will run through Sunday, May 30, 2010.

"Our founder, Ann Hallock Currie-Bell was a great lover of dolls.  She collected them her entire life, acquiring numerous examples from local families to assemble her collection," noted Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director of the Society.  "These dolls which are part of this exhibition are just a few of the many different types included in her extensive collection," noted Fleming.

We don't know for sure, but dolls – or at least doll-like objects – may go back to the beginnings of mankind itself.  The instinct to replicate ourselves in miniature is strong, and the first materials for doing so – wood, bone, and stone – would have been available in most inhabited places from the outset. 

Nuremberg, Germany, was an early toy center where the names of doll makers, carefully controlled by guilds, were listed in the city records as early as the Fifteenth Century.  The earliest dolls were of clay, measuring between three and six inches and depicting women in contemporary clothing (simply molded on).  They seem to have been given to girl babies at baptism.  Undoubtedly by this time too, poorer mothers and fathers were making cloth and wooden dolls for their children to enjoy, even though these dolls have not lasted to tell the tale.

In France, not surprisingly, the emphasis was on fashion.  The mannequin or “poupée modèle” was sent back and forth amongst the aristocracy as early as 1391 to show off the fashions of the day, some of which were life-size.  By the Eighteenth Century, such dolls were being sent to America.  Paper dolls arrived earlier.  They have been in existence since the late 1700s.

In the Nineteenth Century, many cheap, wax German and English dolls were made.  Ironically, in many toy centers, young girls were employed at extremely cheap rates to help make them.  These must have been children who did not like dolls.  Finer wax dolls were made as well, with England the center.  England continued to favor wax doll heads well into the Twentieth Century.  These dolls’ failing were they could melt if held too long close to warm bodies.  Queen Victoria made her contribution to doll fashion as to so many other things.  Several renowned wax doll makers made “Royal Model Dolls,” copies of her nine children.  There had been baby dolls before, but this was their real beginning. 

Most of us, when we think of antique dolls think of porcelain dolls, the type (depending on your age) owned by your mothers, grandmothers, or great grandmothers.  But they are relative newcomers, not appearing much before 1830.  These were dolls for children, but for well-to-do children.  Many were called “Sunday dolls,” dolls to be brought out to be played with for only a few hours a week, and that under adult supervision. 

There were actually three types of porcelain: China (glazed); Parian (white, unpainted bisque – meaning unglazed porcelain); and painted bisque.  Painted bisque quickly forced out the other two because it looked so much more like real skin, and continued to be produced well into the Twentieth Century. 

There were distinctive and successful doll makers in America also, if somewhat later.  Ludwig Greiner, a German immigrant to Philadelphia, was issued the first patent for doll making in1858.  He made papier mâché dolls similar to those manufactured in Germany earlier, but they are easily identified by the cloth reinforcements inside the heads.  Joel A. H. Ellis, in the unlikely location of Springfield, Vermont, created a rock maple doll with splint joints at shoulder, elbow, thigh, and knee (1873).  Also in Philadelphia, Albert Schoenhut and his six sons (from a German toy making family) formed a successful doll firm, producing, among other things, the famous Humpty Dumpty Circus (1903). Today all of these dolls are sought after heavily.

While many styles of dolls are on display at the Society, a few very early ones stand out.  These include two wooden peg dolls that date to just after the American Revolution.  They were made for members of the Horton family and date to the 1780s.  "These two dolls are a rare survival from a period when home-made dolls were king," stated Fleming.  In addition to the dolls themselves, one of the Society's many doll houses will also be on display. 

This exhibition will run from Saturday, April 17th to May 30th and will be open on Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4 pm and by appointment.

The exhibition will be on display in the Mayne Gallery, located in the Society's Ann Currie-Bell House at the Museum Complex on the Corner of Maple Lane and Main Road, Southold.  For further information please contact the Southold Historical Society at (631) 765-5500 or visit us on the web at www.southoldhistoricalsociety.org.