Wax Dolls

Even though the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans knew how to make wax doll, the Germans were the first to produce wax dolls in quantity, during the the 17th century. Somewhat later, wax dolls were manufactured in England by two Italian families of dollmakers, Pierotti and Montanari. Madame Montanari, working in London in the mid 1800's, perfected a way of making wax dolls with rooted hair, instead of attached wigs. Her method was to set the hair into the wax strand by strand with a hot needle. Pierotti also used this method. Modern dollmakers use the same method, with composition and plastic materials.

During the 19th century many interesting wax doll heads were produced in England and the United States. Some of the dolls had their bonnets or hats molded right onto their heads. Other dolls were made with two, three, or four faces. The different faces were made over a pivot hidden by the doll's wig. When the pivot was turn, a new face appeared from under the stationary wig. Each face wore a different expression, so that the doll could look serious or happy or could appear to be crying or to be asleep. Dominico Checkeni, of Marion, Connecticut, patented the design for the first of these many-faced dolls n the United States in 1866.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, copied and pasted straight from Grolier without any citation. That can get you in trouble, you know.

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