Sonels Corner has the theme of Toys for this weeks Black and White Photo Challenge.

My toy is a china head doll from about 1890.  The dress is silk and the silk is slowly disintegrating. The body fabric and laces are still intact. The dress silk was dyed indigo blue and may be rotting because of this particular colour which was very hard on fabrics especially silk. The reason…the acids that were used in the dyes to set the colours.

The china heads, arms and feet were made en masse from about 1840 until 1940. There were many makers in many countries but Germany was prominent in the field. The parts could be purchased from a store and then a body made for the part to fit. 

The way to identify the approximate part of the century that the doll is from involves the hair style. Mine was typical of the 1890’s.

It is not likely that children played with these dolls because they did have china heads but there were certainly collected and displayed.

This is the only doll that I have. I purchased her at an auction about 20 years ago. I really am not into collecting dolls, but I just wanted to have one. This little lady sits in my curio cabinet amongst some other treasures. 

Thanks for visiting….