The Greatest American Dolls
American doll makers granted us with rich history of beautiful and diverse dolls. Here is a rough overview of them.
American Wooden Dolls
SPRINGFIELD WOODENS
The rock maple dolls of Springfield, Vermont, were produced from 1873 to 1893 by a number of men who made almost continuous modifications, mostly to accommodate production. Joel A. H. Ellis was the first of them. Like so many 19th century American production dolls, they retain the look of the German china and papier-mâché dolls of the period.
SCHOENHUT
One of the most vital American dollmakers was Albert Schoenhut, who followed in the traditions of the German wooden toy industry. He emigrated to the United States in 1867 at the age of 17 and five years later opened his own factory in Philadelphia, making pianos and other toys. By the turn of the century he introduced his first circus, which was produced until 1935. These human and animal figures honed his wood turning and modeling techniques, which enabled his doll business, initiated in 1910, to reach a phenomenal level of success. Beautifully molded and articulated, his All-Wood Perfection Art Dolls were eminently playable, not readily breakable, and washable, so they met several of the modern ideals. After Albert's death in 1912, his six sons, headed by the eldest, Albert F., carried on the Schoenhut Company. While the dolls, made until 1930s, are found with a variety of eye treatments, carved hairstyles or separate wigs, they all gently depict real children with lifelike expressions.
MARKS ON SCHOENHUT DOLLS
American Papier Mâché/Composition Dolls
LUDWIG GREINER
Ludwig Greiner, one of the principal and earliest American manufacturers of doll heads, immigrated to the country in the 1830s. Like many other German craftsmen, his family settled in Philadelphia, where he operated a toy and doll business from 1840 until his death in 1874. His sons continued the business until 1884. Greiner's 1858 patent for reinforcing papier mâché doll heads with cloth is the first to be granted in America. Pre-patent examples are harder to document, but many unmarked heads may, in fact, be from the Greiner workshop. The patented heads show a great variety of hairstyles and range in size from "0" at 13 inches to size "13", almost 36 inches. Most of the heads have painted eyes. Dark glass eyes are rare. Many Greiner heads are found on bodies made by Jacob Lacmann, which he patented in 1871 and 1874. The earlier version had leather hands, the later version had a papier mâché hand and heeled foot.
American Cloth Dolls
IZANNAH WALKER
The essence of a letter written by her grand-niece, a Mrs. Norman Robertson, describes Izannah Walker of Central Falls, Rhode Island as an artist, dollmaker, inventor, canary raiser, dabbler in real estate, and one who heard voices in the night, and acted on them ... Some might have called her eccentric, but the voice telling her to use paste in the final process of pressing two shells of one head together in the set of dies must have spoken earlier, suggesting that she pad the two shells with cotton batting; for it is that padded layer that gives her heads a certain tenderness to touch. This is the fiber of her 1873 patent; the legacy she left came from a gifted hand, a soul and a spirit that enriched not only 19th century American life, but today's.
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Sources:
• A Celebration of American Dolls: From the Collections of Strong Museum, Dorothy A. McGonagle
• Complete Book of Dolls: Volume Two, Spinning Wheel editors
• Doll Collectors Manual 1983
• The Collector's Encyclopedia of Dolls, Dorothy S. Coleman, Elizabeth A. Coleman, Evelyn J. Coleman
• The Doll, Carl Fox, Photographs by H. Landshoff