Catalog: Antiques: Decorative Art (81)

This is what I call a down home or servicable antique pot holder. It looks like a odd apple with a tummy sash. It is sewn nicely but with a childish feeling to it. I am sure it was used but care was taken with it. The loop at the top looks original. It is a very nice naive pot holder from the 1840's. It is 4" by 5". I love seeing these hung.

A nice early antique cloth doll with an amazing brown calico dress. She has a sweet ink drawn face with big round eyes. She has applied black fabric on the back of her head representing hair. She has an hour glass body with a tiny waist. Under her calico dress is a early petticoat and pantaloons. She has sewn on brown polished cotton fabric shoes or boots. Her dress is sewn on and the dress is fragile. The hem either never was done or it has more than likely been cut off to accommodate this doll...

This black cloth doll is from a private collection in New Hampshire. She is 16" tall and has embroidered face with a pinched raised nose. She has floss hair coming out from around the sewn on gathered bonnet. She is rag stuffed and is very firm. She sits but it is a bit forced maybe because she has been stored flat in a box for many years. She is hand sewn as is her great early dress with a pocket on one side.The dress is without arms but with her black cloth arms it is hard to notice...

This tall lollipop head pencil face doll has lots to tell. One look at her body tells you many hands have fixed her up. She has one replaced arm, patches and holes on her legs and feet. She has the tiniest of a waist and the biggest of the hips that I have seen. She is nice and early and is all hand sewn. Her pantaloons have been on her so long they look like her body. Her dress is all hand sewn and in tatters here and there...

Really nice early pantry box with a label on the lid and on the front. Both labels read Raisins and it written in nice old sepia ink. The box in in fine crisp condition with nice old patina, mellow honey brown color and hand made nails. The box has a Shaker quality to it but the world made these boxes also so I can't say for sure that it is. It is 8 1/4" across the top and 4 1/4" tall and is circa 1830-40. This is a top notch pantry box.

This is quite the scrap book. The back and front are cloth covered in blue and white calico. The pages are also cloth with stitching around all the edges. The trade and advertising cards are glued down on both sides of the fabric. The pages are bound together by three holes and each page and tied with a yellow ribbon. There are 11 pages, 22 sides, and one 1/2 page that is original and not cut but just a 1/2 page with cards on both sides...

This pin cushion makes quite a statement. It has wonderful calico print fabrics in soft red, blue and brown. It is 7" square and is 3 1/2" thick and very heavy. You can see that it did have pins stuck in it at one time. It was made to be used. This is the best pin cushion! C. 1880 with some of the fabrics earlier.

A black cloth doll with lots of assets. This doll has a very nice embroidered face, the clothes are fabulous, (including pantaloons, petticoat, skirt blouse,apron, lace shawl), her hair is deerskin hide, her socks are hand made with a different color yarn on the sole to make it look like a shoes and she is 20" tall. She is firmly stuffed with cotton. She sits but resists a little so she would sit on an upholstered chair but would tend to slip on a wooden surface...

Pair of wonderful cotton knit striped socks the heal hand worked. The colors and mustard yellow, blue and white stripes. Some of the hand sewing in the heal is lose or is partly out. No holes and I doubt they have been worn much at all. 28" long and circa 1880

This sweet little brown and red doll quilt is in exellent condition with just a little fraying on one edge...see close up. I like to see signs of age like this because it shows it really old. When fabric has been folded and washed and ironed the folds start breaking down the fabric, sometimes aging is a good thing. The quilt is 6" square and is backed with a double pink calico.

Dressed in a blue calico dress this sweet little stump rag doll has a lot going for her. She has an ink drawn face, a lollipop head, and a body that flares out but stops at the hips and never had legs. If I was a mother back in the 19th C. I would have been mighty pleased with myself that I thought up the stump doll concept. It really works, and makes for a very nice doll. She is rag stuffed, has dainty little arms, and a nice blue calico striped dress...

A most wonderful twisted raw wool doll with fur hair, bead eyes, defined stitched fingers, little leather shoes, lace dress with all the underpinnings, a necklace, and she is holding a purse. She has the dearest little face with a pinched nose and a tiny stitched mouth. She is a gauze bonnet that is starting to shred. She is 5" long and is circa 1870 and very special.

A very nice and unusual pencil face doll with sewn on brown ticking skirt that was made as a stump doll. She never had legs, see picture. She is 10" to the bottom of her skirt and 8" to the bottom of her body. She is firmly stuffed with cotton and is truly a prairie type country primitive doll. Circa 1880-90.

Five early paper dolls dressed in crepe paper dresses. When I bought them I was told they were made to hang on the Christmas tree and it is true some of the have thread hangers on the back. They are very nice and unusual. They range in size from 7 1/2" to about 10" and date to the 1880's.

True to the name this doll is rag stuffed simple and straight forward. Her body is two gingerbread shaped pieces of cloth, sewn together and firmly stuffed with rags. Her eyes are two old snaps sewn in place and they do the trick. Her legs have been bent so many times that she sits nicely. She has on the dress she came in...

This early very beautiful Civil War era capelet is a rich reddish brown calico made with the finest cotton fabric that looks like it might be homespun. The workmanship is the best. The capelet is 14” back of neck to bottom and is 10” front down to bottom and 24” spread out. Circa 1860 and excellent condition and Museum quality.

This antique Amish mat is hand braided and really nicely hand sewn. It is in near perfect condition with some minor surface abrasion. It is very tightly braided and to the touch it feels like it has some wool in the fabric. The colors are a green/blue, pink and purple. I lies perfectly flat on the table. 10" by 13" Late 19th C.

A very nice stockinette face doll with button eyes and embroidered eyebrows, nose and mouth. She has raveled yarn hair, she has attached arms and legs and sewn on stockinette shoes. She has wear on hands and on her black stockings. She is firmly stuffed with cotton. She is looking for Vera Wang but until then is wearing a camisole and pantaloons. She is 20" tall and is circa 1890