Antique Doll,Cloth Body Screws In Hips

Hope someone can help id this doll.Estate sale,she look like a world doll,her face look like composition but a little different.Her body is cloth with what look like some type of screw,nail,something.Please help.

 

I think your doll is Italian, although I can't think of a region. Ca 1950s-60s?
I wonder if parts of the headdress are missing, and possibly a black bodice, but I'll see if I can find the costume.

She is lovely, even with that dirt. I'm sure a collector will make her looking nice again, with a little TLC.

 

Metal pin to join limbs.......could be a mask face.......plastic in this case, fitted over a molded head. Likely 1920's/30's.

I am familiar with the dolls from Poland made this way, but with the dark hair, I don't think she's one of theirs.

Not much dollar value....research should be based on wanting to know more for your knowledge rather than dollar value.

 

Is it possible to see the doll undressed?

 

That brooch on the back of her head looks interesting.

 

I can't take top off,I however looked inside a little torn piece on cloth body,appeas to be stuffed with wood shavings.T head and shoulders appears to be compostion but after seeing a tiny slit on shoulders look white inside like paste of sort.

 

Think "brooch" is meant to be a comb or peineta.

Debora

 

Thanks!!!

 

Looking back on your photos, she does appear to be a "shoulder head".....all one piece. Mask face dolls are not made that way.....at least none that I know of.

Someone may recognize the Country she represents and love her.

 

I only know a little about dolls, it's never among my specialties. However, I've been around quite a few in my day, including those belonging to collectors who always seemed eager to extoll the particular values of their charges. Just observing the details of various specimens dating to from over 100-150 years ago, I have the following observations to make about this particular example. Some of them are based solely on socalled profiling, not on any evidence I can present:

1. I believe this doll is older than 1920-30s. Possibly from just around the turn of 1800-1900s, before or after. Why? Just a feeling based on the contents of sawdust in the body, the "shoulder head" that was common then (yes, I know, later also). I can't tell if the head is porcelain or papier-maché but I'm guessing porcelain because it's too well preserved to be the latter, it would have accumulated some scuffs over the years.

2. The face is rounded, the mouth very, well, "eloquent" in shape. This was the face of Russian dolls, with healthy rosy round cheeks to go with. The hair is dark as on a proper Russian beauty, paired with the deep blue eyes which always was a desired look on Russian women, thus mirrored in their dolls.

3. The head ornament may not be a comb but rather a belt, hair or shoe buckle ornament in stamped metal, common in the late 1800s and way into the 20th century. It was considered the "jewelry of the poor", sold by itinerant peddlers to the villagers. Some would always be lying around and such a piece could have been used to decorate this doll. Not original equipment in other words.

4. The skirt looks like a replacement. The color appears too bright, the fabric newer, the lace is too modern machine-made, bright white, machine-stitched on as well and the styling is more reminiscent of the 1950s than the era of the doll's age. The blouse in a different shade of white may be original, slightly soiled, faded with age. Or just an older replacement.

5. The booties may be a replacement also, lovingly handknitted by the doll's owner or sewn together of old knitted material. It's hard to tell if they're hand- or machineknit from this picture. Although faded white they're too new-looking to be original.

6. An original outfit for this type doll would have included a pair of boots or shoes in some soft leather or leatherlike material available back then. They are missing so we can't attach an age there. I would bet on laced boots rather than "Mary Janes" that were a later look on dolls. It's a shame that this footwear is not there.

7. Caveats in my Profiling: The doll could be Polish as well as Russian. The dark hair is not necessarily a no-no on Polish made dolls. They had dark hair as well as lighter shades, blonde. The doll could also be from Germany or Austria, but hardly Italy or Spain. Older Italian dolls had brown eyes, not blue, same with Spanish dolls. The doll appears a little too primitive to be French which is why I have left that out as a guess.

In summary until other evidence is presented: I vote for Russian, Polish, German or Austrian provenance. Other input eagerly awaited. Thank you for your time!

Update: Tried to find an antique Russian doll that resembled the OP's. Nothing like it exactly but many similar. Found this interesting portrait photo of Russian children c:a 1900, on an eBay auction:
http://lizjewel.com/ART/russian-children-doll.jpg
Sorry, my edit didn't allow me to find the place to post the full picture. The doll is in the lower left corner, very similar to OP's doll.

 

Wowww!Wonderful information! I love it! I will start my research starting with the Russian dolls. Again thank you so much!!!

 

That doll is very different, it is older, much smaller, and it looks like only the arms can move and the rest is stiff. @judy will probably know the type.

Detail with doll:


Full image, you can see the size compared to small children:

Turn of the century doll, Heinrich Handwerk, abut the same size as antiquelover's doll:


Antiquelover's doll, clearly later:

Older Italian costume doll by the Italian company Magis Roma, blue eyes, just like most of them:

https://www.goantiques.com/doll-magis-roma-672651

Older Italian costume doll, probaby also by Magis Roma, greyish blue eyes:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/392339127716

Spanish doll with blue eyes, by NATI, a Spanish company:

https://www.rubylane.com/item/555725-2-19-504/Vintage-13x22-Spain-Spanish-NATI-Cloth

As lizjewels already confirmed, sawdust was also used later in the 20th century.

There is nothing that indicates the clothes aren't original, she is just missing shoes, and probably a bodice and some other details.

 

None of the dolls pictured above are anything like OP's.
They are a much finer quality.

OP's never was an expensive doll even when new.

I still compare to one like this......which this one is in much better condition.

 

Even if the doll was older..............I'm not thinking she is, it still doesn't raise any value. The doll is not for the typical doll collector. The person interested in this type of doll would be for the Country she might represent.

On the other hand, someone might want it just for the body and the way the limbs are joined............

Dollar wise, it is not worth fretting over.

The dolls Liz posted are the type doll collectors are interested in. I really can't see the comparison to OP's.

Sorry....it just isn't there.............

 

@Any Jewelry I appreciate your input, however, the Italian and Spanish dolls you show, blue eyes notwithstanding [I stand corrected; there WERE blue eyes on dolls from these countries], are, as Judy mentions of much higher quality than the OP's example. I doubt that any of the Italian or Spanish dolls had sawdust bodies. It is mostly the sawdust that I "profile" as early makers' preferred stuffing in lower-priced dolls. The higher priced dolls had horsehair or kapoque (sp? a shaggy fluffy material as used in blankets of the era).
Judy's example is much closer to the OP's doll although hair color is different.

AJ, I do recognize that dolls of the era to which I refer often looked like the Heinrich example. It has glass eyes, however, and should not be compared with OP's. the Heinrich is of much higher quality.

As far as the clothing being replacements I stand by my view that they are of much newer fabrics with modern stitching than a doll from the turn of the 20th century would have originally. Unless the doll is of much later vintage, which I doubt, the clothes are definitely replacements.

 

The bodice on OP's might be original, but I doubt the skirt is with that lace.

Of course someone could've added the lace years later...........

 

I have looked up Russian and found one almost like my doll.I haven't found an Italian or a German doll that is even close.My dill does not have a rag face as I've came across some Italian dolls.Thanks all!!

 

Judy, I agree 100%.
Of course I posted the examples above in reply to lizjewels' speculation that antiquelover's doll could be ca 1900, and her assumptions about Italian and Spanish dolls not having blue eyes. Not as examples of antiquelover's doll, which I agree, is of lower quality.
Ruling out possibilities (elimination) is a way to get closer to an identification.

 

I think it could have had one or more thin black ribbons, like you see on some Italian and Spanish costume dolls. From the Italian Riviera and the Spanish Basque country, for instance. Which doesn't mean it is Italian or Spanish by definition, we simply don't know yet

My early 60s Italian costume dolls had sawdust bodies btw. The heads were not like anttiquelovers' doll, but more like the Magis dolls.

 

Since I added quotes of your text, you know that is not the reason why I posted the dolls. They were clearly posted in reply to the quotes.
I agree with Judy, as stated above.