Fortune-telling doll made by Charles Ernest Pierotti in England between 1920 and 1929

Fortune telling doll, representing a young adult Romany female, with poured wax shoulder head and arms. The face, which is turned slightly to the left, has moulded and painted features, with fixed inset eyes of white and brown glass and hair lashes and brows; the long dark curls, in a mixture of mohair and human hair, are inserted with knife cuts. The doll has a legless body of stuffed cloth which is mounted to revolve on a wooden stick; the front of the shoulder plate is moulded to indicate the breasts. She is dressed in non-removable clothes, consisting of an ivory-coloured silk blouse with elbow-length sleeves, a black velvet corselet bodice laced at the front with red cords, a short skirt of dark red silk with rows of horizontal tucks above the hem, and a petticoat of white linen and lace. The 'fortunes' were originally attached to streamers around the waist: when the doll was made to spin round, a fortune could be selected.

Given by Miss Irene Pierotti

Unique piece made by Charles Ernest Pierotti and dressed by Eleanor Bessie Pierotti (who had trained as a court dressmaker) as a fund-raiser for a Masonic bazaar

This unique doll is a late piece of work by the doll maker Charles Ernest Pierotti (1860-1942). He was the last practising member of a long line of doll makers whose work in England spans over a century. But its founding member, Charles's great-grandfather Domenico Pierotti (born in Italy in 1760), acquired his dollmaking skills by chance, as a result of falling out of a tree at the age of ten. He came to England for medical treatment, staying with his aunt, who was a professional maker of decorative plaster mouldings and wax figures, and who trained him in these skills as he recovered.

MISC.281-1983