Catalog: Dolls: Antique Dolls: Cloth (231)

Under the great blue calico bonnet this doll has a worn and wrinkle face with a pencil dot for eyes and a pencil line for a mouth. Her nose has gone flat but the bonnet makes her look adorable. She is a homemade beauty, she sits like she has done yoga all her life. Her blue calico dress is voluminous and hides her rather average size body. She can almost do a split her legs go so far apart. She had a slip and undies under her dress and has black socks and brown shoes on...

And yet I don't think she has a clue. She is just quiet and takes it all in. We all could use a friend like that. She has an embroidered face that is nothing short of great. She has hair that looks really real and yet I don't know what it is, maybe mohair? She has on an undershirt, and white dress with a blue calico skirt. She is firmly stuffed with cotton and is jointed at the shoulders and hips. She is in really good condition with just one foot that has a repair and a split at her ankle...

A most unusual black doll that has her name and owners initials written in brown ink on her bloomers. R.W. is on her right leg and DINA is on her left leg. Her face is nicely embroidered with lover's knots for pupils. She has brown floss hair that is just across her forehead, something I don't recall seeing before on any other doll. She is jointed at the shoulders and hips so she sits easily. I do feel her clothes are original...

This little doll antique pencil face doll is made out of wonderful homespun linen. She has a sturdy body that is not jointed but sits after years of being plunked down. She is dressed in a flannel brown skirt and a flannel top with a drawstring at the neck. She has pantaloons that button to the top. She has a color and a lace bonnet and little black leather shoes. She is circa 1890 and is 15" tall.

This doll has a very early body and was recovered from the waist up in the late 1800's. She feels like she has another face under this one but this has been on there so long I wouldn't want to take it off. She has layers of petticoats and then bloomers all under her blue and white period dress. She is heavy and stuffed with rags and maybe some cotton. She has a pencil face with shoe button eyes. She doesn't look like she ever had hair. She is fully jointed and sits great...

Maybe I shouldn't think about it. So without thinking, she is super wonderful, with a elongated head, stitched onto an equally old body, BIG arms and hands, great old body and legs terminating with old nicely worn high button shoes. Still not thinking, her head has water color painted features on very fine old linen, her body is a twill and her arms and hands a little heavier linen fabric with stitch defined fingers and separate thumbs. She is stuffed very firmly with cotton...

I am partial to sister dolls and have been collecting them for years. I have always liked these two. I had dressed them, it is very hard to find two dresses alike as you can imagine and they rarely have their matching dresses 120 years later. No question the same person made both dolls. They are very firmly stuffed with cotton, jointed arms and legs, embroidered faces with that straight neutral red mouth and an embroidered nose done with black floss so it is hard to see...

This sweet little all hand sewn cloth doll is wearing an antique red cotton dress. Her nice little chunky body has shaped legs and feet. Her arms also a shaped and end in a well defined mitten hand. Her embroidered face is done in a brown floss and her hair is very bold over lapping stitches giving it a very folky look. She is jointed shoulders and hip...

I can't believe it, this is Miss Grant my first grade teacher. It has been a lot of years but I think this is her. She has great black fabric hair that feels sort of like mohair? It is sewn on really nicely and dented in to make it look like a part in her hair. Her face is pencil drawn with big circles for her eyes. She has a great pinched nose, and a bit of a raised chin. No real mouth but I can tell it is pursed lips, she always did! Her body was made by a real seamstress. The fabric used for ...

Antique cloth doll with ink drawn face and hair, a body that is all original and dressed in a period dress, pantaloons and blouse. The wild hand knit red and white wool socks are a surprise but I can picture a little girl putting them on her and thinking they look grand. This is the way I bought her so I have left them on as a talking point I guess... She is jointed at shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. The clothes are sewn on but it feels like her arms have been replaced. The only part of her a...

This doll is the first kind of cloth dolls that started to come to market in the 1970's. There were not many cloth dolls in shops or at shows but when I found them they were sort of like this. Simple and straight forward. She has the early hour glass figure and adding to that look is a serious leather corset that was probably made from the top of an old shoe. She is hand sewn, cotton stuffed rather firmly, nicely shaped feet, one nice leather shoe over black stockings. Her arms stop abrubtly at ...

This doll has a dynamic face with bright blue eyes and long eyelashes. She has great hands with lovely long fingers and thumbs. She is uncomplicated all one piece of fabric in back and in front. She isn't jointed but she does sit. She has normal length arms but when I photograph here with her clothes on they look short. I don't get it is what it is. (See pictures with her clothes off.) She came bald but with evidence of a wig. I plunked one on her but it is just pinned on. She is 20" tall and is...

This doll couldn't get much cuter. She is a tight package, stuffed with cotton, the clothes fit her perfectly, figuratively and otherwise. Her face is made as a separate piece of fabric like it was a second face but after looking carefully at her I think it is her original face and it was how she was made. She has on pantaloons, petticoat and calico brown and tan print dress. On her head she is wearing an old straw hat theat is coming apart a little but is so great on her. I think everything mig...

What do you think, I think she was maybe made with big round eye glasses for an adorable little girl who had glasses just like these? Not only does she wear glasses but this is a second face under this one. I am not even tempted to peek, this one is so great. She also has a replaced arm that has leather below the elbow. She is firmly packed with rags, her arms are jointed and her legs are continuous and she can do a forced sit. Her dress is antique but not original, under her dress she is wearin...

Not all black dolls have black bodies. Some of the best dolls I have had were dolls that the maker took an old rag doll and gave the doll a black head. In the Jim Crow era, it became common in the north for mothers to teach their children about the plight of African Americans, by making a black doll for them. So mothers even ones that were not really skilled at sewing were making black dolls. Putting a black covering over a rag doll was one of the easiest ways. This is one of those dolls black h...

As found all hand sewn, sepia drawn face, forever clothes, (been on her forever) that are hand made and now in tones of brown. (Skirt has faded from blue to brown in the front.) I call these dolls, relics! They shouldn't be redressed in my opinion but enjoyed for what they are. Under her apron, blouse and skirt are underclothes that look like they were all made by the same hand. Her cotton stuffed body has jointed arms and continuous legs that with a little persuasion allow her to sit. Her face...

This doll has a very soft worn kind of look. Her face is mended right down the middle and the is darkening just below her shoe button eyes but she still has a very nice sort of sad soft look. I realized I had her dress on backward when I started to photograph her. She has a really nice pocket that she has been sitting on all these years. She is 24" tall. She is stuffed with cotton that has settled so she sits nicely even though her legs are continuous with her body. She makes a gentle statement....

This is another example of a make-do doll. She has a very early body that probably had a china or papier mache head. It was sure easier to just make a cloth head and put it on a doll body that had a broken head than to make the whole doll. She is 24" tall and is firmly stuffed with cotton. The body is 1860 and the head is 1890, pretty cool. She is wearing a early soft red dress and a full slip and a flannel blue and white striped petticoat. She is a real character and her name is Lizzy.