Outstanding American Cloth Doll by Izannah Walker with Wooden Chair

Live Auction

18"(46 cm.) Cloth doll with pressed and oil-painted facial features and hair,center-parted hair with two ringlet curls in front of each beautifully-stitched ear,and extending around her entire head,shaded brown eyes with thin black outlines and red eyeliner,lightly-stroked brows,rounded nose,closed mouth with accent line between the pale lips,muslin stitch-jointed body with oil-painted stiffened hands,defined applied thumbs,bare feet. Condition: generally excellent,some very-light typical craquelure on face. Comments: circa 1865,Izannah Walker,the Pawtucket,Rhode Island doll creator,who obtained a patent for her dolls in 1873 but likely had been making them for some time previously. Her patent described her purpose to create a doll that is "easily kept clean and not apt to injure a young child which may fall upon it. It will preserve its appearance for a long time". An inventive and hardy New Englander,she "made dolls and doll furniture,tinkered with household gadgets,designed a parlor heater ?that beat Ben Franklins',raised canaries,dabbled in real estate and looked upon with admiration by male contemporaries because of her skill with carpenters' tools..."according to a contemporary write-up in the Providence Bulletin. This particular doll originally belonged to Mary Whitney Carter who owned the doll as a child in Pawtucket. One of the family's most cherished possessions,it remained in their care for four long generations,eventually moving to California and now coming to auction for a new home. Value Points: outstanding preservation of the ringlet-curled doll with superb painting,wearing fine antique costume including red kidskin shoes and woven straw bonnet,and owning very frail remnants of original Walker costume. Along with wooden paint-decorated chair that she has sat in for 150 years. The Izannah Walker doll has rightfully been compared to the prized American folk art canvas paintings of William Matthew Prior (1806-1873).