Wood Dolls
Wood Dolls
Children have played with dolls ever since there were children. Dolls have been found ls with wood heads on cloth bodies in
ancient Egypt. Psychologically, babies are drawn to the image of the human face. As children grow up and start to interact with
their world, they create friends, some imaginary, some out of bits of wood or straw or cloth, and some other people. The friends
made out or bits of wood or straw or cloth or any other handy material are the original play dolls. These friends may have been
made by the child, the mother or perhaps out of bits of scrap wood by a craftsman when not too busy with his work.
These figures are quite different from the elegantly and artistically created figures fashioned out of wood by the artisans and
craftsmen filling churches and homes with religious figures in later Western culture. Not until the Industrial Revolution in the
18th Century is there a record of the same skill applied, on a relatively large scale, to a doll designed for interaction with a
child.
The timing of this application of skill from craftsmen to the toys of children was not an accident. The 1700s saw an increase in
trade around the world such that new products as well as new ideas were shared. Among these ideas were the concepts of the
importance of children and the role of play for the child. Couple this increasing importance to the role of being a child with the
increase in toys from trade with the well established German toy industry, and the rising middle class parent could express the
luxury afforded by their increasing wealth by pampering their offspring. The ultimate status symbol was the ability to have
children without having them contribute to the family support at a young age.
Dolls of wood were made from the type of wood that is available in the area. According to Coleman’s basswood was used for
the American Schoenhut dolls, apple wood (pear wood or euonymus according to others) was used for the Chinese Door of
Hope dolls, pine was used for dolls from the Grodner Tal, boxwood was used for French dolls, and oak was used for English
dolls.
Thus wooden dolls have been found in all parts of the world and throughout history. The earliest known wood headed dolls
date to early Egypt. England produced wooden dolls from at least the late 16th through the 18th centuries. Central Europe
produced wooden dolls in the Grodner Tal (Tyrol) in Austria and Italy, Sonneberg near Thuringia Germany, and Oberammergau
and Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. France has documented wooden dolls from the late 17th and 18th centuries.
English wood dolls of the time are commonly referred to as “Queen Ann” dolls. This may be too general a term as the dolls
predate Queen Ann. Eighteenth century dolls have different characteristics that can be sorted into three periods: William and
Mary, Queen Ann, and Georgian.
William and Mary Period
The William and Mary period includes the earliest English wooden dolls up to 1700. According to the 1st volume of the
Coleman's "The Collector's Encyclopedia of Dolls" William Higgs 1733 London made jointed wooden dolls turned on a lathe.
Faces were painted by his apprentice and dressed by his wife. The Colemans credit this information to the book "English Dolls"
by Alice Early.
The have a carved wooden face with well painted eyes. The eye brows and eye lashes were painted as tiny lines. The have
highly rouged cheeks. Wigs, if present are flax or hair. The bodies are wooden and may be carved as one with the head. The
base of the torso is usually square cut. Arms may be cloth with wooden lower arms ending in forked hands. Legs are wooden
with tenon joints.
Queen Ann Period
The Queen Ann period doll extends from the 1700s to 1750. They are similar to above except they frequently have glass eyes.
Their eye lashes and eyebrows are composed of small dots. The large black spots on the faces emulate "beauty spots" which
were fake moles that women applied to their skin - the height of fashion at the times. Wigs and bodies are as the previous
period.
Queen Ann Georgian
Georgian Period
The Georgian period doll extends from 1750 to 1800. These English wooden dolls differ from the preceding periods in that their
wood heads are covered in gesso and then painted. The head inset glass eyes that may be occasionally blue. They had flax
of hair wigs. The wooden bodies are as previously made except that the end of the torso was pointed.
The English wooden dolls continued to be made into the 1800s however they were not as well painted. The eyes were painted
with little expression or skill compared to the painting of the eyes in the dolls of the William and Mary period. These dolls were
exported around the world including to the Americas. A very rare original group of dolls has been identified in original Indian
dress.
As the century turned, many other materials were used to create dolls. However, wood retained its popularity for another 50
years. From the Bavarian Grodner tal, tuck combs or peg wooden dolls as they are called, were popular on a large scale while
the French wooden Court dolls were de rigueur for the aristocracy of the time.
Grodner Tal’s Tuck Combs or Peg Woodens or Dutch Dolls
From the home industry of Bavaria and Tyrol, came the little peg wooden dolls. These were the inexpensive play dolls of
generations in both Europe and America. Their most noted collector, Princess Victoria, just as little girls in rural America,
learned to sew and befriended these simply carved play dolls. These wood dolls were lathe turned, bodies peg jointed to the
limbs, then finished with hand carved details. Once painted and varnished they were ready for whatever adventures their little
owners could conjure up. Frequently the dolls had combs carved into their heads-hence the term Tuck Combs. The bodies of
the small dolls were simple peg joints but the larger dolls had ball joints and even swivel waists. The dolls were often called
Dutch dolls but this was a mispronunciation of the word Deutsch dolls.
Grodner Tal
French Court Dolls
Anatomically correct in a way Barbie never dreamed of, these dolls are unique not only in appearance but also since there is so
little known about them. What is known is that they were not play dolls for children but, according to a theory proposed by John
Darcy Noble, play dolls for adults at court. He suggests that at least some of the dolls belonged to Princess de Lamballe,
charged with entertaining the unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette. Since the court personages had strict rules as to who could
interact with whom, Noble suggests the dolls provided a means to “cross social lines” at some of the more infamous court
“parties”. Whatever the origin, whatever the use, these dolls are unique!
Over the last 3 centuries, dolls have not only been made of wood, but also cloth, papier mache, china, “Parian”, bisque, rubber,
composition, vinyl and most any other material that is readily available and relatively inexpensive. While the popularity and
costs of many other materials has decreased the number of dolls made of those materials, to this day, wood dolls have not
disappeared.
Bebes Tout en Bois
While wood was decreasing in favor of the new porcelain dolls, wooden dolls were still made, especially in Thuringia where
they had been made for centuries. These all wood dolls were made from the late 1800s (with Motschman style body and then
after 1900 with all wood body) for the French market. In French, "all wood doll" is bebe tout en bois though many of the dolls
bear the German translation bebe tout bois. The dolls may or may not have had wigs, may have had stationary or sleep eyes,
and had five piece composition straight leg or bent limb baby bodies. The bodies were sometimes fully jointed, sometimes
Motschman style. The ranged in size from 10 inches to 27 inches. Many manufacturers made these dolls including Schneider
and Schilling, Loffler & Dill, Rudolf Schneider and others. SFBJ, under the leadership of the German Fleischmann, also made
wood dolls. One such doll, in the museum in Neustadt, is puported to be the prototype for the Bebe Tout en Bois made in this
region of German from 1901 on. While some claim that the doll was made by Jumeau, the statement is in fact backwards.
Jumeau was part of SFBJ (1899-1958), the company that made the doll. Jumeau as an independent manufacturer, ceased to
exist in 1899 when SFBJ was formed. Similar to the Vermont dolls made in the United States during the 1880s, some of the
turned wood doll heads were covered with gesso prior to painting. This may have been a bit of marketing folklore as well as the
dolls were known in Paris after 1900 but in Germany long before then.
Joel Ellis and other Vermont Doll Makers
Presence of inexpensive resources largely determines the material from which play things are made. In the fledgling country of
America in the later half of the 19th century, cloth and wood were readily available. Izannah Walker used cloth but Joel Ellis
and other Vermont carvers had ready access to wood resulting in America’s wood dolls. Joel Ellis and Luke Taylor settled in
the Springfield Vermont area and created the wooden dolls from the abundant resources of the area. Joel Ellis was the first to
commercially make wooden dolls in the Northeastern US. He held the patent for a mortise and tenon joint unique to the doll,
created for only one year, 1873. This joint allowed the doll to assume and hold many poses. The dolls were made of rock maple
with hands and feet of metal. Hands were held with curved fingers. All Ellis dolls have black feet while other dolls of the time
had blue feet. In 1879, George Sander's patent for an improved joint was developed into a doll by Mason and Taylor. These
dolls were made of rock maple or beech with the feet of lead or pewter. Original hands (with straight fingers) were wood and
later replaced with metal hands. Later, in 1881 a neck joint was patented that allowed the head to turn. Unlike the Ellis doll
heads of painted pressed wood, the Mason and Taylor heads were painted composition over wood.
Joel Ellis Mason and Taylor Martin, Sanders and Johnson
Schoenhut Dolls
Schoenhut advanced upon the wooden dolls of the Vermont carvers and filed for his patented all wood spring jointed doll body
in 1909.
Examples of Schoenhut dolls
Door of Hope Dolls
Forests are found through out the world with wood carvers found through out the world living near them. China’s forests have
provided simply carved but elegantly dressed dolls depicting the main members of society of China at the end of the Imperial
Rule and the beginning of the Communist Rule in the early years of the 20th century.
Door of Hope Group
Dolfi
Pongratz
References
Coleman, Dorothy S., Elizabeth A., Evelyn J. The Collector’s Encyclopedia of dolls. Crown Publishers: NY. 1968.
Hill, Dorothy. Wonderful Woodens of Springfield. Doll Reader September 1992 p 59-61.
Lotz, Jean. Lotz Doll Pages http://www.lotzdollpages.com/
Noble, John D. Dolls. Walker and Co.: NY. 1967.
Noble, John D. Rare and Lovely Dolls of Two Centuries. Hobby House Press: Md. 2000.
St. George, Eleanor. From the Cradle of Inventions. Hobbies June 1944 p 18.
Children have played with dolls ever since there were children. Dolls have been found ls with wood heads on cloth bodies in
ancient Egypt. Psychologically, babies are drawn to the image of the human face. As children grow up and start to interact with
their world, they create friends, some imaginary, some out of bits of wood or straw or cloth, and some other people. The friends
made out or bits of wood or straw or cloth or any other handy material are the original play dolls. These friends may have been
made by the child, the mother or perhaps out of bits of scrap wood by a craftsman when not too busy with his work.
These figures are quite different from the elegantly and artistically created figures fashioned out of wood by the artisans and
craftsmen filling churches and homes with religious figures in later Western culture. Not until the Industrial Revolution in the
18th Century is there a record of the same skill applied, on a relatively large scale, to a doll designed for interaction with a
child.
The timing of this application of skill from craftsmen to the toys of children was not an accident. The 1700s saw an increase in
trade around the world such that new products as well as new ideas were shared. Among these ideas were the concepts of the
importance of children and the role of play for the child. Couple this increasing importance to the role of being a child with the
increase in toys from trade with the well established German toy industry, and the rising middle class parent could express the
luxury afforded by their increasing wealth by pampering their offspring. The ultimate status symbol was the ability to have
children without having them contribute to the family support at a young age.
Dolls of wood were made from the type of wood that is available in the area. According to Coleman’s basswood was used for
the American Schoenhut dolls, apple wood (pear wood or euonymus according to others) was used for the Chinese Door of
Hope dolls, pine was used for dolls from the Grodner Tal, boxwood was used for French dolls, and oak was used for English
dolls.
Thus wooden dolls have been found in all parts of the world and throughout history. The earliest known wood headed dolls
date to early Egypt. England produced wooden dolls from at least the late 16th through the 18th centuries. Central Europe
produced wooden dolls in the Grodner Tal (Tyrol) in Austria and Italy, Sonneberg near Thuringia Germany, and Oberammergau
and Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. France has documented wooden dolls from the late 17th and 18th centuries.
English wood dolls of the time are commonly referred to as “Queen Ann” dolls. This may be too general a term as the dolls
predate Queen Ann. Eighteenth century dolls have different characteristics that can be sorted into three periods: William and
Mary, Queen Ann, and Georgian.
William and Mary Period
The William and Mary period includes the earliest English wooden dolls up to 1700. According to the 1st volume of the
Coleman's "The Collector's Encyclopedia of Dolls" William Higgs 1733 London made jointed wooden dolls turned on a lathe.
Faces were painted by his apprentice and dressed by his wife. The Colemans credit this information to the book "English Dolls"
by Alice Early.
The have a carved wooden face with well painted eyes. The eye brows and eye lashes were painted as tiny lines. The have
highly rouged cheeks. Wigs, if present are flax or hair. The bodies are wooden and may be carved as one with the head. The
base of the torso is usually square cut. Arms may be cloth with wooden lower arms ending in forked hands. Legs are wooden
with tenon joints.
Queen Ann Period
The Queen Ann period doll extends from the 1700s to 1750. They are similar to above except they frequently have glass eyes.
Their eye lashes and eyebrows are composed of small dots. The large black spots on the faces emulate "beauty spots" which
were fake moles that women applied to their skin - the height of fashion at the times. Wigs and bodies are as the previous
period.
Queen Ann Georgian
Georgian Period
The Georgian period doll extends from 1750 to 1800. These English wooden dolls differ from the preceding periods in that their
wood heads are covered in gesso and then painted. The head inset glass eyes that may be occasionally blue. They had flax
of hair wigs. The wooden bodies are as previously made except that the end of the torso was pointed.
The English wooden dolls continued to be made into the 1800s however they were not as well painted. The eyes were painted
with little expression or skill compared to the painting of the eyes in the dolls of the William and Mary period. These dolls were
exported around the world including to the Americas. A very rare original group of dolls has been identified in original Indian
dress.
As the century turned, many other materials were used to create dolls. However, wood retained its popularity for another 50
years. From the Bavarian Grodner tal, tuck combs or peg wooden dolls as they are called, were popular on a large scale while
the French wooden Court dolls were de rigueur for the aristocracy of the time.
Grodner Tal’s Tuck Combs or Peg Woodens or Dutch Dolls
From the home industry of Bavaria and Tyrol, came the little peg wooden dolls. These were the inexpensive play dolls of
generations in both Europe and America. Their most noted collector, Princess Victoria, just as little girls in rural America,
learned to sew and befriended these simply carved play dolls. These wood dolls were lathe turned, bodies peg jointed to the
limbs, then finished with hand carved details. Once painted and varnished they were ready for whatever adventures their little
owners could conjure up. Frequently the dolls had combs carved into their heads-hence the term Tuck Combs. The bodies of
the small dolls were simple peg joints but the larger dolls had ball joints and even swivel waists. The dolls were often called
Dutch dolls but this was a mispronunciation of the word Deutsch dolls.
Grodner Tal
French Court Dolls
Anatomically correct in a way Barbie never dreamed of, these dolls are unique not only in appearance but also since there is so
little known about them. What is known is that they were not play dolls for children but, according to a theory proposed by John
Darcy Noble, play dolls for adults at court. He suggests that at least some of the dolls belonged to Princess de Lamballe,
charged with entertaining the unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette. Since the court personages had strict rules as to who could
interact with whom, Noble suggests the dolls provided a means to “cross social lines” at some of the more infamous court
“parties”. Whatever the origin, whatever the use, these dolls are unique!
Over the last 3 centuries, dolls have not only been made of wood, but also cloth, papier mache, china, “Parian”, bisque, rubber,
composition, vinyl and most any other material that is readily available and relatively inexpensive. While the popularity and
costs of many other materials has decreased the number of dolls made of those materials, to this day, wood dolls have not
disappeared.
Bebes Tout en Bois
While wood was decreasing in favor of the new porcelain dolls, wooden dolls were still made, especially in Thuringia where
they had been made for centuries. These all wood dolls were made from the late 1800s (with Motschman style body and then
after 1900 with all wood body) for the French market. In French, "all wood doll" is bebe tout en bois though many of the dolls
bear the German translation bebe tout bois. The dolls may or may not have had wigs, may have had stationary or sleep eyes,
and had five piece composition straight leg or bent limb baby bodies. The bodies were sometimes fully jointed, sometimes
Motschman style. The ranged in size from 10 inches to 27 inches. Many manufacturers made these dolls including Schneider
and Schilling, Loffler & Dill, Rudolf Schneider and others. SFBJ, under the leadership of the German Fleischmann, also made
wood dolls. One such doll, in the museum in Neustadt, is puported to be the prototype for the Bebe Tout en Bois made in this
region of German from 1901 on. While some claim that the doll was made by Jumeau, the statement is in fact backwards.
Jumeau was part of SFBJ (1899-1958), the company that made the doll. Jumeau as an independent manufacturer, ceased to
exist in 1899 when SFBJ was formed. Similar to the Vermont dolls made in the United States during the 1880s, some of the
turned wood doll heads were covered with gesso prior to painting. This may have been a bit of marketing folklore as well as the
dolls were known in Paris after 1900 but in Germany long before then.
Joel Ellis and other Vermont Doll Makers
Presence of inexpensive resources largely determines the material from which play things are made. In the fledgling country of
America in the later half of the 19th century, cloth and wood were readily available. Izannah Walker used cloth but Joel Ellis
and other Vermont carvers had ready access to wood resulting in America’s wood dolls. Joel Ellis and Luke Taylor settled in
the Springfield Vermont area and created the wooden dolls from the abundant resources of the area. Joel Ellis was the first to
commercially make wooden dolls in the Northeastern US. He held the patent for a mortise and tenon joint unique to the doll,
created for only one year, 1873. This joint allowed the doll to assume and hold many poses. The dolls were made of rock maple
with hands and feet of metal. Hands were held with curved fingers. All Ellis dolls have black feet while other dolls of the time
had blue feet. In 1879, George Sander's patent for an improved joint was developed into a doll by Mason and Taylor. These
dolls were made of rock maple or beech with the feet of lead or pewter. Original hands (with straight fingers) were wood and
later replaced with metal hands. Later, in 1881 a neck joint was patented that allowed the head to turn. Unlike the Ellis doll
heads of painted pressed wood, the Mason and Taylor heads were painted composition over wood.
Joel Ellis Mason and Taylor Martin, Sanders and Johnson
Schoenhut Dolls
Schoenhut advanced upon the wooden dolls of the Vermont carvers and filed for his patented all wood spring jointed doll body
in 1909.
Examples of Schoenhut dolls
Door of Hope Dolls
Forests are found through out the world with wood carvers found through out the world living near them. China’s forests have
provided simply carved but elegantly dressed dolls depicting the main members of society of China at the end of the Imperial
Rule and the beginning of the Communist Rule in the early years of the 20th century.
Door of Hope Group
Dolfi
Pongratz
References
Coleman, Dorothy S., Elizabeth A., Evelyn J. The Collector’s Encyclopedia of dolls. Crown Publishers: NY. 1968.
Hill, Dorothy. Wonderful Woodens of Springfield. Doll Reader September 1992 p 59-61.
Lotz, Jean. Lotz Doll Pages http://www.lotzdollpages.com/
Noble, John D. Dolls. Walker and Co.: NY. 1967.
Noble, John D. Rare and Lovely Dolls of Two Centuries. Hobby House Press: Md. 2000.
St. George, Eleanor. From the Cradle of Inventions. Hobbies June 1944 p 18.
Three examples
of Tout en Bois
dolls. The one
on the right is a
Motschman
style baby with
papier mache
head while the
two on the left at
the top below
are wood.
of Tout en Bois
dolls. The one
on the right is a
Motschman
style baby with
papier mache
head while the
two on the left at
the top below
are wood.
