Old cloth doll pin cushion?

Hi Good People,

I think this is the best forum.. can anyone tell me anything about this cloth doll please?

It came in a box of stuff from auction, I’m in England. Judging by the way the cloth is disintegrating I assume it has some age? Thought maybe a pin cushion? Measures 10cm/4” in length.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

I have heard these dolls referred to as Shroud Dolls, because of their simple construction.
I have no idea when they first came into common usage but I do think they could be as old as 100 years or more.
The simplicity of the doll would make it possible for a mother or child with limited needlework skills to provide a toy and the shape would make it easy for a very young child to grasp.

 

A poor thing of great poignancy. Looks 1930s/1940s from the print. May well have been feedsacking.

Debora

 

Looks a bit like a papoose..

 

Can you even IMAGINE giving a sweet,lovingly made doll like that to these kids nowadays ??? They'd be mortally offended ! I remember seeing ones like this made out of old clothespins (remember those?) when I was very young. This is one of those objects that makes me get a little verklempt ,thinking of some granny making it for her grandchild . Mainly because I think of my own dear and much missed grandmother. Damn it,who's cutting onions in here ???

 

I CAN TOTALLY RELATE TO EVERYTHING you mentioned, Johnny!

 

That's 30s fabric all right.

 

Not feedsack if it's British, we didn't do that clever thing of patterning them. it does look like 30s dress or curtain fabric.

 

American feed/flour/sugar sack makers printed them because people were making the fabrics into clothing. I'd imagine it also helped sell whatever was in the sack. I've sold a few bits of it here and there, including two pieces that were completely intact. Right down to the stitching holes. One of those shipped to Japan for silly money.

 

Yup, I've seen those US feedsacks. I don't know why we never did it here. They did get used as rag rug bases, but they were plainish hessian.

 

The plain ones here were used as baking towels.

 

That is a feed sack. I have one in that pattern. There were hundreds of patterns but I have several of that exact one.

 

Thanks Lark, what dry goods came inside of your feedsacks?

 

Hi,
When I was a kid my chickens meals all came in feed sacks. Since we grew what we needed I do not remember anything else coming in those feed sacks.
greg

 

And that's why they were called "feed" sacks.

 

Hi,
I forgot to say that the flour came in feed sacks also. They switched to paper bags in the 1940s. So I guess they were "feed" sacks also.
greg

 

Sugar did too, if you bought any. I think the commercial size flour and sugar sacks hung on a little longer, but those were always plain white.

 

@Lark - that's interesting. I wonder if someone sent the fabric over to here.

 

Or brought the doll over with them when they were young? That would be sweet.

I always wonder at the history of things. The second piece of uranium/Vaseline glass I got was Gillinder and sons from 1888. I don’t know if they exported but like to imagine how it ended up on our shores.

 

War bride who went the other way?