Doll

Object Name:

Doll

Object ID:

1959.068.066

Description:

Doll, woman. Synthetic material, wood, and textiles. Molded head of synthetic material. Painted black hair. Molded curls around top of neck, from one ear to other. Ears not delineated, but probably under hair. Part in hair down middle, top of head. Molded short hair on top of head above curled area. High forehead. Hair comes to sharp V. Paint and material missing from top of forehead in hair area. Gray eyebrows. Line across top of upper eyelid, dark pupils, red nostrils, red-painted lips, and painted rouge on cheeks. Some staining and discoloring on face and formed body. Short neck and below that, thorax continues down to about sternum, and in same level on back. Edge of body then sweeps upwards to just below shoulders on both sides. Body tapers to narrow waist. Kid body below waist, attached to about knee area to slender, long, wooden legs that terminate in yellow, painted shoes. Feet rather narrow and pointed along with painted-on shoes. Some paint missing on right leg. Red, narrow band around joint between legs and body. Legs wrapped together by gray adhesive cloth tape around ankles. Slim, white slip with 0.6" wide hem that ends ~3" above floor level. Slip terminates at waist level where gathered. Some slight staining at bottom of slip. Long, plain, white, fairly-full petticoat, reaching to floor level. Hem 0.9" wide. Hems and narrow slip sewn with basting-type stitch. Some brown staining in petticoat. Petticoat gathers at waist. Fairly full, two-layer outer dress that reaches below feet. Inner dress below waist of fine, plain-white cloth with 0.7" wide hem. Hem just folded over that causes stiff feeling to it. One vertical seam in cloth near center front. Gauze-like, white material over cloth. Hem at bottom edge of gauze, 0.2" wide. Three, round, shiny, horizontal, paper bands near bottom on dress, 0.25" wide. Bottom edge at 1.6", 2.5", and 3.5" above bottom edge of gauze. Sections decoration missing and some sections loose. Some sections of dress above waist that slightly overlap hard portion of head and shoulder piece. Over that, gauze material folded into some narrow pleats, stretching upward from waist area, over each shoulder and down back to gather again near waist. Deteriorated, satin-like ribbon and bow at waist on front. Sections of decorative paper that form V-shapes on front and back above waist. Gauze wrapped around upper arms to create sleeves that extend to elbow. Some decorative paper cuffs around ends of sleeves. Wooden arms straight, long, and narrow with slightly-sculpted hands and thumbs. Off-white. Satin bow around right wrist. Gauze and outer dress quite discolored from age, tending to be more tan than white. Evidence on back of doll that some of dress and some of gauze may have been pink in color. Hints of pink in satin ribbons in some of protected areas. Satin bow at top edge of gauze in center, just over sternum.

Material:

Textile
Composition
Wood
Leather
Paper

Dimensions:

H-15 W-6 D-1.8 inches

Provenance:

All materials from the attic of the Burpee homestead in New London, NH, a neighbor of the donor. The Burpee family has been in this home since 1817.

Credit Line:

Gift of Susan Colgate Cleveland

People:

Cleveland, Susan Colgate (1891-1967), Burpee