Onsite
Highest Bidder
$44,000
Sold
sold
- Estimate
- $30,000 / $40,000
Description
17" (43 cm.) All-wooden doll with one-piece head and torso, high domed forehead, black enamel inset eyes, dot-painted lashes, single line brows with "stitch" accents, refined shape of nose, thin line closed mouth, strong blush spots on cheeks, brunette human hair over black fabric form with raised roll for coiffure shape, elongated throat, shapely bosom with defined nipples, cloth upper arms, wooden lower arms and individually-carved fingers, tenon-jointing at hips and knees, shapely thighs and calves. Condition: generally excellent, hair wig is sparse. Comments: England, circa 1765. Value Points: wonderfully-preserved doll is wearing her original blue and white striped silk dress with button front and side panels of skirt which form a demi-train at the back, matching neck ruffle, undergarments, stockings and silk shoes; along with rare flat-board hat, face ruffle, silk hooded cape, and additional transfer print cotton dress. The doll is preserved in her original wooden lidded box, and was featured in the book, The Heart of the Tree, by Rosalie Whyel and Jill Gorman, pages 24/25.
Stuart's Take
Presence in a doll is one of the key elements that drives every collector choice. For me, and I know for Florence as well, this example of an early English wood doll has one of the most alluring and beautiful faces we have seen. "Fetching" would be the proper word. Add in the incredible original costume and she would dominate a room of dolls on any day. In addition, one of the features I love is the size. At 17" she stands a bit smaller than many English wood dolls of that period. For collectors of French Fashions who like scale within their collections for vignettes or displays, this is exactly in that realm and difficult to find.