Cloth Dolls
Cloth dolls, similar to wood dolls, were available to both the wealthy and the common child. It was the skill and
artistic sensibility of the maker that determined the charm of these pieces of folk art. American creators were
innovative and highly productive in the manufacture of ddolls as the industrial structure was still very home based,
there was little competition from local potters, and imported bisque dolls were expensive. As with other materials,
availability of materials and skills combined with changes in technology and artistic sensibility produced the dolls
associated with given times in history.
The simple rolled cloth doll had features drawn on the cloth face. Often features were painted using materials such
as watercolors or oil paints. This simple construction technique utilizing available resources was used by many
cloth doll artists of the late 19th and 20th century including Emma Adams, Moravian, Presbyterian, Maggie and
Bessie, Horsman and Johnny Gruelle, Izannah Walker, Ella Smith, J. B. Shepherd, Bruckner, Martha Chase,
Rollinson, WPA, Gre-Poir,
Izannah Walker Alabama Baby Philadelphia Baby Columbian Doll Maggie Bessie
By needle sculpting the cloth face, a more realistic set of features could be painted. This technique would have
been a common skill for the homemaker prior to the end of World War II. Its expression is found in dolls of the mid
1880s (Coleman’s Vol II fig 605), later 1800s with the Julia Beecher baby, Martha Wellington, and Xavier Roberts
Appalachian Artworks dolls.
Julia Beecher Missionary Rag Baby and
Appalachian Artworks by Xavier Roberts
As printing processes improved, printers added new products to their lines including printed cloth dolls.
Lithographed cloth dolls were common in the early 20th century. Mother’s Congress, Art Fabric Mills, Bruckner,
Maud Tousey Fangle, Volland, Molly-es, Georgenne Averill used this technique to produce dolls with printed
features. Current Raggedy Ann dolls still have printed faces.
Molded heads found their way into cloth doll manufacture from around the world including Bruckner, Kathe Kruse,
Lenci, Raynal, Gre-Poir, Venus, Farnell, Chad Valley, Rollinson, Madame Alexander, Kamkins, Martha Chase and even
modern cloth dolls by Maggie Iacono and R. John Wright.
German Kathe Kruse Italian Lenci French Raynal American Kamkins Modern R John Wright
Unlike other materials, cloth is the material from which anyone, small child to fine artist, has made a figure to
represent the human as they see it, be it as an imaginary friend or historical figure. Scrap cloth over a stick, potato
or even hand can provide friendship, solace, imaginary expression, or educational opportunities to the smallest
child (think sock on the hand) to the finest artist or to the creative teacher. Cloth dolls have been used to explore
the child’s world, instruct young adults on basic childcare and console the elderly and forgetful in nursing homes.
Cloth dolls represent man in a way no other media has ever been able to do.