#85

Early French Wooden Court Doll of Lady with Elaborately Carved Hair
Live Auction

Ended
$17,000
sold
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Description
14" (36 cm.) One-piece carved wooden head and torso with rounded cheeks, very slender elongated throat, and generous bosom, sculpted hair deeply-brush-marked behind her well-sculpted ears and captured into two well-defined ringlet curls and a loop at her nape, painted blue eyes in deep eye sockets, thick brows, closed mouth in very stern expression, cloth upper arms, wooden lower arms and legs, hip jointing, painted blue shoes. Condition: structurally excellent, finish is original albeit very rubbed, costume frail. Comments: French, late 1700s, the series of dolls representing persons of the Royal Court of King Louis XVI. Value Points: rare early doll, wearing (frail) original costume of fine silk with interwoven pattern, with set-in stomacher, undergarments, and matching cap. The doll appears in Theimer's book Les Poupees Royales de la Cour de Louis XVI (2006), page 100, 101.