1850s Doll of Napoleon comes up for bid on Ebay

I see the Galleria Verges is offering a porcelain and wood doll of Napoleon Bonaparte from the 1850s for sale on Ebay. The doll has very delicate features and what appears to be real leather boots.

The listing description:

"Napoleon is dressed in wool clothes, possibly leather boots, and carries medals of honor. The doll measures about 14" X 4 1/4" X 2" ( 35.5 cm X 10.8 cm X 5 cm ). Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica on August 15th, 1769 and died in the Island of Saint Helena on May 5th, 1821. Napoleon was one of the most influential and powerful military and political leaders in European History. Napoleon served as a General in the latter years of the French Revolution. Then, he ruled as a First Consul, and afterwards he crowned himself as the Emperor of France. Napoleon fought some of the most powerful European countries in the first ten years of the 19th Century and dominated continental Europe through several important victories such as Austerlitz. Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig and finally in Waterloo. He was exiled to the Island of Elba. Napoleon lived under British supervision the last 6 years of his life. He died in the Island of Saint Helena of stomach cancer, but some scientists claim he was poisoned with arsenic."

It has an opening bid of $700 - a little bit out of my league, unfortunately. The auction ends Jan. 26, 2009. Perhaps another art museum will be the successful bidder on this unique piece.

UneekDollDesigns offers detailed peg doll miniatures

I was reading an article about the retail success of craft outlets despite the current economic slump and it mentioned the Etsy website that featured handcrafted gifts. I had never heard of it and thought I would go up and look around. Naturally I spotted the dolls category and the miniatures category under it. To my great excitement I saw they have a historical miniatures category.

The first vendor I looked at, UneekDollDesigns, offered small 4 3/4" peg doll-style creations with wonderfully detailed costumes. Some of my favorites included:

Mary Boleyn (mistress to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's sister):

"Mary is dressed in royal blue velvet accented in silver and rhinestone trim. I hand painted her face and she has soft, golden red hair topped with a beaded head piece. Mary would be a perfect collectible for any Tudor history lover, or a very pretty addition to a doll house or shelf display.She stands only 4 and 3/4 inches tall."



Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary - daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon):

"Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, she is remembered for restoring England to Roman Catholicism after succeeding her short-lived half brother, Edward VI, to the English throne. In the process, she had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions, resulting in her being called Bloody Mary. Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabth I."

"She is fashioned in her royal Tudor costume designed in black and white underskirt with crushed black velvet overskirt. Decked in glittering silver trim and pearl accents, she's an eye catching royal in spite of her not so pleasant reputation! Mary stands about 4 and 3/4 inches tall."

Cleopatra VII, Queen of the Nile (and seductress of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony!):

"One of the most famous ,yet mysterious rulers of Egypt, Cleopatra has intrigued historians for many years. She was known not just for her seductiveness and beauty, but also her ability to rule. She had a child with Julias Caesar, and later had 3 children with Marc Antony, whom she was married to. She met an unfortunate end when she found out Marc Antony was dead and tradition says she died by purposely letting a snake bite her.

Cleopatra is designed with a full Egyptian queen regalia. Her white robe is accented with gold trim. She is showing off her cloak trimmed in silver and gold trim. Cleo wears a gold head dress studded with a blue jewel stone. She stands a petite 4 and 1/3 inches tall. "

UneekDollDesigns also creates commissioned miniatures on request such as this wonderful William Shakespeare.

"My trademark I am most known for is not using a pattern for any of my designs on anything. I guess I just prefer to picture it, then try various techniques to get what effect I want!

My miniature dolls were actually made when I needed some characters to put in a couple of fancy dollhouses that were being designed as a special gift. Not finding any characters that I liked, I started making my own, starting with a basic wooden clothespin. The rest is using my imagination, lots of fabric, and other creative materials!

My greatest pleasure in doing my hand crafted items is seeing other people derive pleasure from them, too!"

I know I derived a lot of pleasure just looking at all of the different people from history, hollywood, and literature that she created! The dolls are also reasonably priced averaging $20 each (some a little more and some a little less).

Don't miss "A Child’s Eye View" exhibit at Williamsburg if you're nearby during the holidays

My husband and I had the pleasure of visiting Williamsburg for a day some years ago and since then I have supported the work of the Williamsburg Foundation in preserving history and creating learning opportunities for all ages. So, I receive email updates each month and the update for this month mentioned that Williamsburg is hosting a marvelous exhibit of historical dolls and toys at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. You enter the museum through the Public Hospital of 1773.

What a doll. She's a tall, slender beauty with flowing tresses and shining eyes and a Mona Lisa smile. She's got it all: gently arching eyebrows, shapely legs, petite fingers and feet. And what a wardrobe—a lace-trimmed dress of watered silk, a satin petticoat, two white undercoats, whalebone stays at her tapered waist, fancy silk socks inside brocaded shoes, and a robe in rainbow hues with sleeves turned back for a flirty glimpse of forearms. A doll indeed. She's carved of wood with a face of gesso and languid eyes of glass that would steal Ken from Barbie any day.

Not to be catty, but Barbie is, after all, in her fifties—all the more galling to lose a boyfriend to a rival in her 200s. Barbies by the thousands stare through plastic on the crowded shelves of today's cacophonous super toy stores. Her colonial counterparts may have sat among the bonnets and purses on a shelf of the millinery shop in Williamsburg, whose proprietor, Margaret Hunter, advertised "a variety of Toys, dressed and undressed Babies, Green Silk Purses etc." in the Virginia Gazette of October 15, 1772. Lucky was the little girl—and well-heeled her family, no doubt—who was given this stylish lady as a toy.

[Left - Bewigged and begowned in lace and embroidered silk, this doll, now in Colonial Williamsburg's collections, must have been the treasure of some eighteenth-century girl. Photo by Hans Lorenz.]

The Williamsburg website has a wealth of slides shows, videos and podcasts about their living museum, costumes of the period, daily life in Colonial America, and politics of the Revolutionary Period. I particularly enjoyed their interactive slide show on colonial fashion. It includes a range of clothing from elaborate silk gowns of the wealthy elite to the rather risque attire of a bar maid (or prostitute I wasn't quite sure - she looked very much like a 21st century teen decked out in Gothic dress complete with black lipstick)

Technorati Tags: Williamsburg, colonial America, Virginia, dolls, toys, historical, museum, exhibit,

Historical Biblical Dolls

I was checking for an address for the Hamilton Collection today and noticed that their latest offerings include a "Little Drummer Boy" porcelain doll in 1st century dress. This 11 1/2" porcelain doll was created by award-winning artist and sculptor Titus Tomescu. I thought he looked very endearing.

I have several other dolls in my collection that include the Biblical characters Ruth (right), Judith and Mary Magdalene. They are each 22" tall and were produced by World Gallery. I also have the character dolls that were sold in conjunction with the release of the animated feature film "Prince of Egypt". That group includes a young Moses dressed as a prince of Egypt, Tzipporah, the shepherdess who became his wife, and an older Moses in desert robes. They were produced by Hasbro. I bought mine on Ebay and paid less than $20 each for them but I see they are now being offered on Amazon for $49.95. Apparently they were not produced in great numbers and have passed into the realm of "collectible".