Important 17th Century English Wooden Doll with Glass Eyes and Original Gown
25 Watching
Live Auction
Do****dy
Highest Bidder
$90,000
Sold
sold
Click image to enlarge
Estimate
$60,000 / $90,000
Description
20" (51 cm.) Wooden doll with one-piece oval-shaped rounded head, distinctive throat, shaped bosom front, small hips, mortise and tenon jointed wooden legs, cloth upper arms, wooden lower arms with large hands having separately carved splayed fingers, creamy gesso complexion with cheek blush spots, refined shape of nose, small brown glass eyes in pronounced curve, socket eyeliner, painted tiny upper lashes, one-stroke brows with dot accents, pronounced beauty spot on forehead, silk floss wig on tacked-on linen cap. Condition: generally excellent. Comments: English, circa 1680, one of only two examples of this era with glass eyes known to exist. Value Points: the extremely rare doll glass eyes and beauty mark and having compelling dignified presence is wearing her original cream colored gown of Indian cotton printed with coral and ecru spandrels and flowers, and with lace headdress, red Moroccan leather shoes and kidskin fingerless gloves. An additional gown is included. The doll is featured in the book, The Heart of the Tree, by Rosalie Whyel and Jill Gorman, pp. 16/17. Ex-collection Dina Vierney.
Stuart's Take
An interesting back story on the costume this remarkable doll wears. When this doll was obtained originally by Dina Vierney decades ago she took the original costume off and placed the red dress on it that is also included. At some point the original was separated by her and placed on another doll. As such, years later, when the Vierney collection was sold in London it only had the red dress. Then, miraculously, a few years after, a collector in Europe who remembered the doll and what the original looked like, called Rosalie excitedly to tell her that she had found the original dress, which was now placed on a different doll! Showing Rosalie's deep desire for maintaining the stories and originality of pieces like this, she bought the doll and, after thirty years, reunited the original dress in her rightful place.
