Featured Old Doll - Composition? Paper Mache?

@David Askett Very nice closeup. Colors on my large desk computer monitor for the skintones are a warm brown, like coffee with a little cream in it, and a light varigated yellow where the "tan" is broken off.

On the very first images of the doll in this thread, it appeared to me that the skin tones were ones like on a Caucasian woman. And that the tiny doll strapped to her could be likened to a brownskinned African child.

Perhaps I misread the skintones. Maybe the larger doll was also supposed to portray an African native woman although of lighter skintone?

If both the dolls were made in Africa for the African market it'd make sense that the skintones would be attractive to native children there, and not Caucasian.

What materials could they then be made of? From the colors as I see them the light varigated yellow speaks of sawdust. Probably native tree sawdust from Africa. Which would make it a so called composition doll in the accepted sense of the term.

If a light test by scraping a teensy amount from the bottom of the doll's sole is not against your principles I'd suggest one, to be analysed. If sawdust it is probably combined with a type of glue made with animal residual products obtainable from any local abattoir.

It would still interest me to hear if the doll is supposed to represent a native African or a Caucasian. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks for your thoughts, Lizjewel. The doll definitely has a brown skin tone, and so I believe she’s supposed to be native African. The baby is much darker-coloured but appears to be made of the same material.

 

The Khoi (formerly called Hottentots) are fairly lightskinned, as are the San (Bushmen). Their faces often look more Asian than those of most other Africans.
Both nations are native to South Africa, whereas many of the darker skinned South Africans (Bantu etc) came to the region around the same time the Dutch did. The Bantu etc tribes came into Khoi territory from the north, the Dutch settled in the south.

Khoi or Khoikhoi girl:


San or Khoisan: