Dolls of Metal; still my loves

 

French metal head on wooden body

 

Max von Boehn in Dolls (1927) traces the genealogy of the doll to the ancient Venus figures of the Stone Age which are over 40,000 years old in some cases. Metal dolls, while still not prized in many important collections, may have the richest history of all dolls.  From the golden idols of the Inca and Aztec to the toy soldiers of lead and silver and the Minerva, Juno, and Diana doll heads of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, metal dolls form a fascinating collection.   I hope that this brief survey of their history will inspire others to take up the “iron gauntlet” and add to the dialog.

Not too long ago, I was in an antique shop in Kalona, Iowa, a historic Amish community.  There, I spied a very large and lovely doll with a metal head and blue glass eyes.

I could see some sort of magazine article in her lap, and I thought this must be a page form a catalog showing a similar doll.  As I got closer, I realized with a shock that the picture was the first page of an article I had written on metal dolls eleven years ago. The photo of the doll was one of the examples form my own collection, and my father had taken the photo. 

This article will focus on dolls made of metal, mechanical dolls, and dolls with metal parts.  It will address why these objects are becoming popular in today’s popular culture and in the world of antique collecting.  The dolls discussed are all different, but have one thing in common; some type of metal was used to create them.  Though some may feel that metal is a cold and unsuitable material for making dolls, I think that Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, who create the wonderfully warm and iridescent Reardon Metal, might agree that the affects of using metal to make dolls can be both dazzling and beautiful.

Metal Dolls in the Ancient World:

 

Most readers are familiar with idols made of gold, because of the Old Testament story of the golden calf.  In fact, people have used precious metals to make dolls and toys for centuries in the Ancient World and in Medieval Europe.  Wealthy children often had toys of silver and told and in Utopia, Sir Thomas More mentions that citizens of Utopia

give precious metals and jewels to their children as toys.  Celtic literature is full of legends and myths of the importance of iron in their civilization.  At first the Celts used untempered iron for spears, but because iron in this state is softer than bronze, the spears were not successful.

The historian Polybius describes a battle between the Gauls and the Romans in 223 B.C. where the Gauls had long swords that bent with each blow and had to be straightened out.  The Romans won the battle by attacking the Gauls before they could straighten their weapons. In Welsh and Manx mythology, iron is deadly to the Faerie, and mortal who marries a Faerie woman and merely touches her with something made of iron will watch her and all wealth she has brought him disappear . Later, the blood metal, iron, became almost an object of reverence to Celtic tribes living around 700 B.C. in the Hallstatt period.            

 

Medieval and Renaissance Metal Dolls:

 

Mary I, aka, Bloody Mary supposedly received a golden cup filled with gold coins on her first Christmas . Silver rattles and marottes were standard gifts for wealthy children during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  It is, after all, a small step from silver rattles with attached bells that resemble marottes, to dolls. Silver doll furniture also graced the baby houses of the rich.  I saw such furniture as late as 1978 at Shreve, Crump, and Low, Boston.  Antonia Fraser writes that silver soldiers and acrobats were famous in the Netherlands during the time of Charles II .   The memoirs of Louis XIII’s physician, Dr. Herouard, show that the King had silver toys and dolls.  During this time, The Pope allegedly sent silver toys to the children of the king of Poland.

Not only toys, dolls, and figurines of metal were created during these era, automata of metal were create during The Middle Ages.  Dolls and puppets were also made of clay, and wood cuts from Hortus Sanitatus (1491) show doll makers or puppet makers at work. Martin Luther used the term Tocke (Docken) as an insult for a silly, but pretty woman.  Other dolls called puppets and mammettes were mentioned in William Turner’s Herbal (1562) and a woman in the court of Elizabeth I received a “baby of pewter.”

In her book Automata and Mechanical Toys, noted author Mary Hillier, who was also my friend, showed several medieval and Renaissance examples of metal toys.  One was a beautiful mechanical doll that played a lute.  Her clothes are detailed and sumptuous, her face expressive and dreamy.   According to Mrs. Hillier, this doll may have been made by Gianello Della Torre.  The doll is from the Vienna Kunst Historisches Museum. 

An interesting pair of lead dolls were fished out of the Thames fairly recently.  These are all lead, and represent a man and woman in elaborate 17^th century attire.

 

 

 

 Metal Dolls and  The Enlightenment:

            The eighteenth century saw the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, and with it, the mass production of metal toys and dolls.  One Mr. Child operated a toys hop by old London Bridge from around 1756-62 called the “Blew Boar” which advertised “all sorts of Fine steel and both metal toys . . .Pewter lead . . toys.” Besides the fact that Mr. Child is appropriately named for running a toy shop, it is interesting that shops catering to children existed at this time, when children were socially treated and dressed as miniature adults and when doll houses and other bibelots were for adult entertainment.

The 19^th Century:

            Dolls with metal heads have existed for a long time, but did not enjoy any popularity until the middle nineteenth century.  The three most famous trademarks were Juno, Minerva, and Diana.  Probably, these heads were named for Greek and Roman goddesses because they were meant to be beautiful, yet indestructible.

The mid nineteenth century saw the start of the American metal toy industry, helped by the efforts of Edward Paterson in Berlin, Connecticut.  Later, manufacturers in Europe and the United States began to produce dolls and doll heads of tin and brass which copied the style of the earlier bisques and chinas, but which were unbreakable.  Unfortunately, these dolls were not immortal because they were subject to flaking paint and fell victim to rust and dents in the metal.

For example, metal heads were initially popular because any dents in the heads could be pushed back into place. Of course, doing so left chipped paint and other imperfections.  Metal used for heads in the 1890's included brass, zinc and tin plate.  The heads were mainly mass-produced in Germany.  Those made in 1894 often had sawdust-filled bodies, glass or painted eyes, and natural or molded hair.  Some fancy hairstyle metal heads appeared when elaborate bisque heads, the so-called "Parian" dolls, were popular.  Two of these dolls date from the 1870's and are made of pewter. The late Gladys Hyls Hilsdorf boasted two beautifully modeled dolls with pewter heads in her collection, c. 1870s.  They had flowers and ornaments in their hair, and looked as they though were copied from statues of Roman matrons. Waxes over metal heads were created, just as wax over papier mache heads had been made.

            American commerce was important to the manufacture of these doll heads; for example, Minerva heads by Buschow and Beck of Germany were sold in the United States through A. Vischer and Co, New York, NY.  These and other German heads were exhibited at the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904.  In their own way, they were a real innovation to the toy industry. Montgomery Wards and other department stores were advertising them in their catalogs, too.

            In 1912, Minerva advertised a doll that shed real tears. This author, however, has never seen one. She has, however, seen a mechanical doll marked Minerva, with metal body and limb, including a Minerva head.  Genevieve Angione shows and discusses in her book All Dolls are Collectible a boy marked with the Minerva mark.  The head is six and three-fourths inches in circumference with a number "three" embossed on the back.  The eyes are painted blue and have white highlights and red dots at the corners and nostrils.  The ears are molded and slightly detached.  The hair is brown, the body stuffed with hair.  The boy's hands are chubby and bisque.

Very rare French metal doll heads are also mentioned by Angione. At least one of these, the elusive Huret metal head, was manufactured by a woman.  Her rival firm, Rohmer, was also run by a woman.  The two became involved in a complicated law suit over a zinc-bodied doll during the mid nineteenth century. 

 

Metal heads to attach to doll bodies were made in Europe by French and German makers, including Rene Poulin, Lucien Vervelle, Sommereisen, Huret, Carl Heller, and Karl Standfuss (Juno c.1898 to 1930s).   

 German makers include Buschow and Beck, with Minerva helmet as their mark, Max Diddtich and Joseph Schon c. 1886-90, Robert Hiller 1887-90, Alfred Heller (Diana) 1901-1910. Furthermore, a 1903 Montgomery Wards catalog advertised Minerva heads from $.25 for a head of 2 5/8 inches to $.75 for a four-inch head.  A four inch head was for sale for $45.00 at a recent doll show, held November 10, 1996 in Davenport, IA.  The head had painted features and hair, and was in fair to good condition.  Dolls with the added features of teeth and glass eyes sold for $.75 each to $1.75 for a head of 5 3/8 inches.  Curly-haired doll heads cost $.50 to $.75 each.  The same catalog advertised Minerva "Knockabout" dolls.  These dolls were eleven inches long and came without wigs.

Of course, other companies besides Minerva were making metal dolls at various times.  One twenty-three inch doll with a metal shoulder head has a wig, open mouth and sleeping eyes.  The doll is marked "Germany 15." A similar doll with a closed mouth and no marks is thirteen-inches high.  A metal headed boy has no marks and painted features.  His body is cloth with bisque arms and leather legs.  An R. H. Macy catalog of the early 1900's describes a "Diana" metal head as unbreakable with moving eyes and a wig. The head came in eight sizes and cost between $.44 and $1.39.  The Diana head is rare. According to Johl, a constant supply of metal heads for Europe was replacing fancy bisques and china heads.

Metal Frozen Charlotte type dolls regularly appeared in Crackerjack boxes as prizes.  One such doll in the author's collection is attached to a baby announcement card along with a metal stork.  It dates from the 1880's.

            The United States was not far behind in producing dolls of metal, as the search of unbreakable dolls, immortal as the goddesses they were named for, took off.  The Aluminum Doll Head works, USA 1991-20 created heads and hands of aluminum on cloth or composition ball jointed bodies.  Atlas doll and Toy Company made all metal dolls with sleep eyes and wigs as well as metal heads with metal arms on stuffed bodies.  Their trade names were A.D.T. Co, Hug Me Kid and dolly Jump Rope doll. Atlas had its location in Baltimore, MD and produced about sixty-five types of dolls in 1921.  The baby doll was modeled after the bent-legged bisque headed babies of the era.  According to Lauren Jaeger in "Identifying Your Dolls," Doll World, Oct. 1993, Atlas and other American companies entered the doll marked during World War I to fill a need for dolls.  

            I have a metal girl in her collection that is about seventeen-inches high.  The doll's body is cloth, her limbs composition.  The hair is molded in a bob style with a molded

loop for a ribbon.  The original dress is of a taffeta, the print faded to a lavender color.  The paint and features are in good shape, though the doll was a good price at $75.00.  Dolls of this type are usually valued at $200.00 or more.

            Giebeler Falk, under the name Gie-Fa, created a doll with a n aluminum head.  One version had a wooden body with a phonograph.  The doll was called Primadonna and was created c. 1918-21. Other American Companies were Armor metal Toy Stamping Co., 1922 and Horsman.  The Metal Doll Company, c. 1902, made dolls briefly of steel sheet metal.  This is the All Steel Doll, and was distributed by George Borgfeldt.

The Edison phonograph doll, featured in Gaby Wood’s Book Edison’s Eve, appears with a bisque Jumeau or Simon and Halbig head, but had a steel body with a phonograph. This doll was first advertised in Scientific American Magazine, c. 1890, a periodical still in production today.  An actress provided the doll’s voice.  It is possible to hear a recording of the doll talking on The Internet today.

All metal babies were sold in the 20s and 30s, wile other dolls had baby heads of tin with cloth bodies and composition hands and feet.  Lead soldiers were still popular during this time.  Ives walking dolls and mechanical toys had heads, bodies, and metal parts, too.

Metal Dolls Today:

Modern dolls of metal appear everywhere as puppets, charms, amulets, and props.  Some of these are what Bartholomew calls "grotesque dolls," in that they are the descendants of Cruchet's toy guillotine, made in 1810, and a Sweeney Todd penny-in-the-slot pier show of the nineteenth century.  Trolls, Frankenstein, and the other monster dolls mentioned earlier, Hassenfield Brothers' The Intruder began to appear on toy store shelves.  Metal doll utensils were also reappearing.  A silver plated bottle opener in doll form is currently made by Godinger of Italy.  The front bottom hem of his gown reads "BACCHUS," and the arms move up and down, operating a corkscrew mechanism attached to his head.  He is molded and cast with grapes in his long tresses, with a chain and bracelets around his neck and arms.  His tunic is decorated with grapes.  His face bears a realistically joyous expression.  He imitates figures made in Europe many years earlier, especially during the Renaissance by Cellini and other masters.  From India come tiny musicians with elaborate hairdos and jewelry cast in a lost wax method. 

            Dolls will continue to be made as long as there are human beings to conceive of new designs for them.  They will continue to reign predominantly in the children's realm, though individual adults and museums will still collect them as tangible artifacts of human history, miniature representations of humanity for their respective ages.

            Metal dolls, while still not prized in most important collections, may have the richest history of all.  From the golden idols of the Inca and Aztecs, to the toy soldiers of lead and silver and the Minerva and Juno heads of the last century, metal dolls could form a fascinating collection in themselves.  I you would like to learn more, please see our Flickr Page for more Photos, “Metal and Mechanical Dolls”, https://www.flickr.com/groups/2801427@N20/.   We also have a page “Antique Doll Collector, https://www.flickr.com/groups/2820905@N21/, as well as two boards on Pinterest, Antique Doll Collector Magazine and Antique Doll Collecotr Magazine Covers. Of course, there is our blog, Antique Doll Collector Magazine Blog, and my book With Love from Tin Lizzie . . .  To all who are interested in doll history and doll collecting, Happy "Dolling," love, Tin Lizzie.