$3,000
Sold
sold
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Description
20" (51 cm.) All-cloth doll with pressed and oil-painted facial features and brown hair with delicate stippling onto forehead, deeply-defined eye sockets, brown painted eyes, feathered brown brows, fringed upper lashes, accented nostrils, stitched-ears, closed mouth with very full lips, stockinette stitch-jointed body, oil-painted lower arms and legs, bare feet, antique costume appears original. Condition: generally excellent. Comments: known as the "Philadelphia Baby", the distinctive doll was commissioned for the J.B. Sheppard Department Store of Philadelphia toward the end of the 19th century; the quality of artistry and workmanship is superb and distinctive, yet the actual maker remains unknown. Value Points: rarely found American doll with superb sculpting details and perfectly-preserved original painted finish.