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South Devon, UK |
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'HISTORY
is to society what memory is to the individual'. |
| INTRODUCTION Rag/Cloth Dolls forever hold a strong affection in our hearts and minds having been created & recreated many times over the centuries. The fact that they were unbreakable and inexpensive resulted in them getting more wear and tear than other more costly toys which would have been handled with more care and respect and thus there are fewer examples of antique rag dolls in museums and homes today. Those that do survive reflect the fashions and culture of the times. Traditionally dolls and particularly cloth dolls have been a way of passing cultural norms on to children. |
Over the years, cloth dolls were stuffed with straw, sawdust, leaves, feathers, fabric scraps, left-over thread and yarn, cotton batting, wood-wool, Kapok, foam chips and nylon stockings and more recently Polyester filling. |
Doll
clothing was made from fabric scraps left over from the family sewing basket.
The clothes would have reflected the clothes of people during the time the
dolls were made, including underwear, petticoats, long dress, pinafore,
apron and bonnet. Doll shoes and stockings might have been sewn or painted
on.
Facial features were embroidered or painted with ink or stained with natural dyes: berries, flowers, leaves, tea. In some cases, e.g. primitive dolls, the dolls might have no face or perhaps given eyes only. Early dolls were often made from all sorts of materials, such as animal skin, corn husks, cotton fabric and other soft materials. |
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Despite
being of a perishable nature, some examples of cloth/linen dolls, which
can be traced right back to
ROMAN, EARLY GREEK
and EARLY
CHRISTIAN
times survive in museum collections today. The British Museum has a Roman
rag doll, found in a child's grave dating back to 300
B.C. Other early finds include 1st Century Peruvian dolls made from woven materials and 6th Century Coptic dolls made from brightly coloured wools. They were not always used as toys, but also as religious or fertility symbols. |
Linen
doll, made in Egypt and filled with rags
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The
pattern/design of the early cloth doll was quite basic, usually consisting
of two identically shaped outline
body pieces.
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Between the DARK and MIDDLE AGES, there are no examples of cloth dolls, since wooden toys and puppets predominate, children worked as soon as they were able, many families struggled for daily existence with a few meager belongings and Christianity denounced the practice of making graven images at this time. |
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Indeed, cultures such as the Amish
See also Types of Cloth Doll (above menu) |
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During
the SEVENTEENTH and
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES,
a wave of people emigrating across the Atlantic swept from Europe to America.
Successive groups of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Scots, Irish, Dutch,
Swedes and many others attempted to transplant their habits and traditions
to the new world. |
Cloth dolls
made by these COLONIAL
AMERICANS are mentioned
in diaries, property lists and literature of the time. They must have been
treasured items, indeed. Early Colonial dolls are also known as Primitives
or Pioneer dolls. |
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| In
the 18th Century,
the dominant figure in the textile industry in England was Richard Arkwright
(1732-92) from Preston, who changed the cotton industry completely with
the help of a brilliant inventor Thomas Highs (1718-1803), by introducing
a machine for cotton spinning together with new mills and factories to replace
the old cottage industry involving working at home by hand. Cloth
would have been regarded as a cherished commodity due to the long hours
invested in its manufacture. Even the smallest scraps or material were diligently
saved and reused.
There
had already been the invention of the Flying Shuttle in 1733 by John
Kay (1704-c1780) from Bury, and the Spinning Jenny by James Hargreaves
(c1720-1778). |
The
AMERICAN
CIVIL WAR,
however, coincided with the after-effects of this period of over-production
in the late 1850s. Consequently,
exported supplies of raw cotton from the southern states of the USA to England
slowed down considerably. This resulted in mass unemployment, poverty and
starvation in the north of England, affecting many towns within Lancashire
including Preston and Burnley. This
British Cotton Famine, or Cotton Panic, was one of the bleakest periods
in the history of the Lancashire Cotton Industry and lasted four years. This may explain, in part, why the craft of cloth doll making became more popular in American, North America and Australia than in Great Britain. |
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Famous
cloth doll makers throughout history also include Izannah
Walker, (1840s) who made cloth dolls with a primitive, folk arts look. Izannah Walker
patented her dolls in 1873 and these dolls are very much in demand by collectors. In Europe the cloth doll was being produced by the Lenci Doll company. Steiff and Lenci, began to experiment with stockinet and felt which was hot-pressed over a mould. |
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In the early 1920's Norah Wellings (Chad Valley designer) used velvet for her souvenir and commercial character dolls. |
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As a result of the invention of the sewing machine and magazine pattern
printing, home made rag dolls gained greater popularity in the NINETEENTH
CENTURY. From about the 1850's, commercially produced rag dolls where the dolls were printed on cloth or had their features hand painted in oils became popular.
Flat
panel/printed
dolls were
first sold in sheet form in the
EARLY 2OTH CENTURY and
were of the outline/pancake style.
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![]() ![]() Doll bought from Bethnal Green Museum 1968 as a flat printed piece of cloth, cut out, sewn and filled with foam chips! |
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Freelance artist, Johnny Gruelle created a distinctive, whimsical design for a doll named 'Raggedy Ann', which he patented and trademarked in 1915. He achieved fame from illustrating children's books and in particular as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, eventually becoming known as "The Raggedy Ann Man." By the time of his death in 1938, his Raggedy characters, dolls and books were known throughout the world. |
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In Germany, about 1937, doll maker Kathe Kruse began producing cloth dolls with papier-mâché heads that were covered with stockinette cloth. Although Kathe Kruse dolls are no longer made this way, she is also known for creating what is known as the Waldorf Doll, a simple, soft, huggable hand made doll with a characteristic head shape.
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Other dolls were marketed during this time as 'Scavini Dolls' after their creator, Elena Scavini (Turin, Italy), who began making cloth dolls with her brother to supplement their income during the war. They found that wool felt could be molded under pressure and was readily available even during the war. In 1937, the Garella family succeeded the Scavinis in running the company and still control it today. |
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Many
children's dolls and toys were home-made, during the
1940'S WAR TIME
PERIOD,
when resources were limited and materials scarce,
because they could be made cheaply
and simply with little skill or equipment. The wartime and post war ethos
was very much one of make do and mend.
Man made fabrics, such as nylon and polyester, were introduced during the
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To make something that could be useful, but which ultimately
has developed into something decorative and creative, has always been part
of the UK mindset.
Interestingly, Modern traditional UK crafts and textile art has its roots in the wartime and post war ethos of practical, make do and mend such as weaving, knitting, crochet and patchwork & quilting. Since dolls were seen as a luxury during wartime, few dolls were made and the stigma that a doll is a toy/ plaything, has dogged the art/craft of cloth figure making for decades and still underpinned people's prejudices in the 20th Century. Attitudes are thankfully now changing. |
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1960's television influenced cloth doll
making with programmes such as
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In
the early 1970's Martha
Nelson of Louisville, KY created a style of doll using
a German folk art known as needle modelling, later also known as soft sculpture or needle
sculpture.
Her style of doll was subsequently copyrighted by Xavier Roberts, who called 'Little People', now commercially known as
Cabbage
Patch Kids, with vinyl heads, but still maintaining the soft sculptured body.
(Both
forms of theAs
their popularity escalated Xavier Roberts created an elaborate fantasy |
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There
were many well known cloth doll designers of the
1970's, 1980's and 1990's
including Jean Greenhowe, Judi Ward, Valerie Janitch, Gail Attwell, Betsy McCall, Sharon Welch, Ana Lakeland, Isla Gray, Anita Holmes, Joan Russell, Pamela Peake, Frances Barnes to name a few.
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Today cloth dolls are still created all over the world. The craft seems most popular in Canada, Australia and the US and the styles of cloth doll are remarkably diverse. The technique of needle sculpting and tailoring have taken the humble rag doll to new heights. Antonette Cely, Patti Medaris Culea, Barbara Willis and Susie Oroyan are just some of many well known cloth doll artists who inspire doll makers in the 20th and 21st Century |
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Bibliography: http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/index.html History of Cloth Dolls by Martha Checkett: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/17949/100814 www.sandspurpatch.com/history.htm http://ctdollartists.com/history.htm http://members.tripod.com/~LindaDahl/cloth.html Making History: History of British Cotton. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheets/makhist/makhist_subjects.shtmlSee also 'Cloth Dolls From Ancient to Modern' by Linda Edward Schiffer Publishing ISBN: 0764302132 |