Doll, wax on a wooden stick base, silk brocade mantua

Doll, wooden stick covered in cloth with wax head and forearms. Head has modelled white wax hair and small pins around hairline, suggesting that a headdress or cap is missing. Inset glass eyes. No legs, just a wooden stump under skirt. Dressed in a white silk mantua with an extremely wide pannier, woven with a narrow stripe of small pink rosebuds. The stomacher is blue, and the dress is trimmed with narrow silver braid. 'Leading strings' in same fabric originally pinned to shoulders of doll, now loose but present. Very shiny glazed cotton petticoat under a stiff brown paper petticoat to support wide skirt. Hand-written paper label attached to glazed cotton underskirt.

Gift of Mr H.J. Powell

Laetitia Clark (born 1741) dressed 13 dolls between 1754 and 1814 in miniature fashionable outfits of the day using fabric from her own clothes. To accessorise the dolls she also collected miniature furniture and household utensils. This doll was dressed to represent a gown of 1754, worn when Laetitia was 15. It is the earliest doll in the collection.

In 1761 Laetitia married David Powell, a London merchant, at St Botolph's, Bishopgate, London. The couple continued to live in that area, and one of their sons was the grandfather of the founder of the Boy Scouts, General Sir Robert Baden-Powell. Further dolls - dressed by the granddaughters and great-granddaughters of Laetita Powell - were added to the collection up to 1911.

The collection both illustrates the styles of dress of the period, the fabrics available, and the types of dolls that were available.

W.183-1919