Doll from my grandmother

[starwarz99]

My grandmother had an extensive doll collection, and before she passed away, she was giving away some of her collection, and as a grandson, this was the only doll I took. (I received some other items, just not any other dolls). My daughter now is enamored with this doll, and I actually let her touch it sometimes, but have to be very careful because the clothing is getting a little old, and you can just feel that it could give out soon. I was given the box with the doll, but do not know if it is the original box that the doll came in or not. It would be great if someone could tell me a little about this doll and/or the 'treasure chest' as my daughter calls it. Any information would be great, even if it's just possibly the age and/or origin. Thank you all in advance!

 

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[Archeodeb]

My grandmother had an extensive doll collection, and before she passed away, she was giving away some of her collection, and as a grandson, this was the only doll I took. (I received some other items, just not any other dolls). My daughter now is enamored with this doll, and I actually let her touch it sometimes, but have to be very careful because the clothing is getting a little old, and you can just feel that it could give out soon. I was given the box with the doll, but do not know if it is the original box that the doll came in or not. It would be great if someone could tell me a little about this doll and/or the 'treasure chest' as my daughter calls it. Any information would be great, even if it's just possibly the age and/or origin. Thank you all in advance!

I figured from the hairstyle that your doll was probably from the early 1900s, so I did some quick research and found this...


Compare to your doll...


This doll head is also from the same mold as yours.

(Expressions and coloring vary because they were all hand-painted.) This is a German-made china doll from the doll factory in Thuringia Germany, which made dolls between 1890 and 1920.

Apparently they made a lot of cheap, bone china dolls affectionately know as "Frozen Charlotte" dolls because they had frozen expressions and no movable parts. They also made heads, arms and legs that were sewn onto cloth bodies like your doll's. Do a Google image search for "Frozen Charlotte dolls" and take a gander at the number of these dolls they were producing back then.

By the way, I don't think the dress on your doll is original to the doll. I could be wrong, but it looks more recent to me.

 

[surf]

Hello starwarz,

Welcome to TNet & thanks for showing us your grandmother's lovely doll. I'd date it somewhat earlier, in the 1870 to 1890 time frame. The porcelain / china dolls were popular for many moons, but were replaced by the bisque dolls, beginning circa 1880.

You didn't tell us the size of your doll. They came in multiple sizes. I've found that the Blondes are a bit more uncommon than the black tressed dolls. Sometimes there is maker / mould numbers impressed below the neck. I've dug many doll parts over the years.

 

[starwarz99]

Thank you Archeodeb! I did a search for Frozen Charlotte dolls, and I'm getting a lot of the full body dolls, but not a whole lot of the ones like mine. Good to have an idea of what I'm looking at though!

And thank you too Surf! Sorry, the doll is about 7.5" tall. It's got a cloth body under the dress, with the feet glazed, but the head and arms are not.

So glad I found this site to give me an idea of what I'm looking at!