Doll

Doll, an imitation-baby used as a toy by girls. The word doll is of doubtful derivation; possibly from idol; in French, the name is poupée; in German, puppe, from Lat. pupa, 'a girl,' 'a doll.' The use of dolls as an assistance to the operations of the young mind dates from the most remote times, and is common in all countries, barbarous as well as civilised, springing from the early mental process which requires some object to increase the definiteness of the child's ideas. Thus, however roughly made the doll may be, it answers a purpose—setting the child's brain to work, and enabling it, by the association of ideas, to form a mental picture of what it is intended to resemble. Precisely as a child in a mansion in England fondles a finely-dressed doll worth a guinea, so does the child of an African or Eskimo take delight in a piece of wood or bone carved rudely in the form of a baby. Accordingly, the keeping of a doll virtually becomes a part of the home-education of girls, and is recognised to be so by the universality of the practice. But with many uncultured tribes the doll is not confined to children. Among the Bechuanas, married women carry a doll with them till they have a child, when it is discarded; a similar practice being observed by Basuto women. In many parts of Africa, whenever twin children are born, one of them is killed; and among the Wanyamwezi, it is usual for the mother 'to wrap a gourd or calabash in skins, to place it to sleep with, and feed it like the survivor.' Even the European child's love for the doll by no means depends on its artistic excellence; a bit of stick dressed with a few rags is often hugged as heartily as the finest toy-baby. See Tylor's Early History of Mankind, chap. vi.

As in the case of most other Toys (q.v.), dolls were at one time imported into Great Britain chiefly from the Netherlands; and hence not an unusual name for a doll was a Flanders baby. These old Flemish or Dutch dolls were made of wood, with neatly formed faces and flashy dresses, the cheaper kinds having slender wooden legs. Of late years there have been great improvements in the making of dolls, and in England it has assumed the character of a manufacture; but there are still large importations from the countries on the Rhine, France, and Switzerland, where women and children are mostly engaged in the manufacture, largely in their own houses. Some carve the heads and bodies, others paint the faces and necks, others prepare legs and arms, and a different class cut out, sew, and put on the dresses. These operations are seldom executed by one person. Usually, dealers buy the fragments so far prepared by villagers, and get them put together in a wholesale way. As the time employed in the preparatory processes is scarcely of any marketable value, the prices of fragments are most insignificant. Hence, as regards all the cheap kinds, with painted faces and ringlets, dolls can be imported at a cost below that at which they could be executed by hand-labour in England. When, however, we come to dolls of a superior kind, with moulded wax or composition faces, arms, and feet, glass-eyes, stuffed bodies, flaxen ringlets, and gauze dresses, the English, by their machinery and capital, carry off the trade. In London there are about forty doll manufacturers, and about as many in New York and the New England states, who in this as in other trades make an economic division of labour; there being dolls' head-makers, dolls' leg and arm makers, doll sewers, doll stuffers, dolls' wig-makers, dolls' eye-makers, and doll dressers. For some dresses, remnants of calico, gauze, silk, and other materials, are procured from shops; but for fashionably dressed dolls, much in demand, it is necessary to buy goods on a large scale. The extent to which dolls' glass-eyes are manufactured is surprising. Some years ago a glass manufacturer at Birmingham stated before a committee of the House of Commons that he had received, at one time, an order for £500 worth of dolls' eyes. The cheaper dolls' eyes are simply small hollow glass-beads, made of white enamel, and coloured with black or blue, but without any attempt at variety or effect; while those eyes of a higher quality have a ring of colour to represent the iris. The introduction of wires and mechanism to make the eyes move or wink at pleasure, and also to cause the doll to utter the sounds 'papa' and 'mamma,' have been successive improvements, with a corresponding rise in prices. It is stated in the experience of the trade, that during the present reign blue eyes for dolls have been in the ascendant in England, but that black eyes find the best market on the Continent, especially for Spanish dolls. Black dolls are made for export to America, where they are in request by girls of negro parentage, and the introduction of gutta-percha is favourable for this branch of the trade. Composition-heads are usually made of papier-mâché, cast in a mould, and waxed and painted to represent the features.

One of the most attractive stalls at the Great Exhibition in 1851 was that which contained the dolls of Madame Montanari, a London manufacturer. Referring to this stall, the Jury Report said: 'It consists of a series of dolls, representing all ages, from infancy to womanhood, arranged in several family groups, with suitable and elegant model furniture. These dolls have the hair, eyelashes, and eyelids separately inserted in the wax, and are, in other respects, modelled with lifelike truthfulness. Much skill is also evinced in the variety of expression which is given to these figures, in regard to the ages and stations which they are intended to represent.' Some of those dolls were sold at five guineas undressed, and at a greatly increased price when richly attired. The same exhibition showed how much skill could be exercised in making rag-dolls, in which almost every part is formed of textile materials. But, compared with these dolls of the middle of the century, those displayed in the various exhibitions that have recently been held show what a great advance has been made in their manufacture, their artistic appearance being as graceful as it is lifelike.