Doll thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Doll

1880-1889 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Doll with a wax head representing a young caucasian child with fixed blue glass eyes, moulded and painted features, and strands of fair hair showing around the edge of its cap. The doll has two interchangeable faces, one serene with a gently smiling closed mouth, the other with frowning eyes and brows and the area around the mouth painted red in a circle to represent it as open in the act of crying or yelling. Only one face is intended to be visible at a time, with the other hidden beneath a metal cap which is covered with a white bonnet; the shoulders are of composition moulded to show the upper part of a white garment with a collar. The lower arms are of wax over composition, and the lower legs are of composition; the upper arms and legs are of cloth stuffed with sawdust. The body is formed from a cloth-covered cylinder of card which contains the mechanisms for the sound and the turning of the head, both of which are operated by strings at the side of the waist.
The doll also has a woollen cloak trimmed with woollen fringe.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Wax, composition, cloth, card
Brief description
Doll with a wax head with two interchangeable faces representing a young caucasian child; probably made by Fritz Bartenstein; Germany, 1880-98
Physical description
Doll with a wax head representing a young caucasian child with fixed blue glass eyes, moulded and painted features, and strands of fair hair showing around the edge of its cap. The doll has two interchangeable faces, one serene with a gently smiling closed mouth, the other with frowning eyes and brows and the area around the mouth painted red in a circle to represent it as open in the act of crying or yelling. Only one face is intended to be visible at a time, with the other hidden beneath a metal cap which is covered with a white bonnet; the shoulders are of composition moulded to show the upper part of a white garment with a collar. The lower arms are of wax over composition, and the lower legs are of composition; the upper arms and legs are of cloth stuffed with sawdust. The body is formed from a cloth-covered cylinder of card which contains the mechanisms for the sound and the turning of the head, both of which are operated by strings at the side of the waist.
The doll also has a woollen cloak trimmed with woollen fringe.
Dimensions23 inches tall according to original record card (unverified)
Marks and inscriptions
PATENT (said to be stamped on doll at front)
Credit line
Purchased
Object history
Bought at auction at Bonhams for £80 in November 1971
Production
The doll is similar to a known Bartenstein illustrated on p 49 of The Collector's Encyclopaedia of Dolls by D S, E A and E J Coleman. Bartenstein acquired three patents for double-faced dolls between 2880 and 1881 (one patent of September 1881 included a mechanism-operating string to come out of the side of the body).
Subject depicted
Collection
Accession number
MISC.85-1971

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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