Lady Doll, Sanitary Fair
Decorative Arts and Design
Another doll from the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, this one shows extensive signs of use, most likely as a child’s toy. Little is known about the doll, although its beautifully detailed day-wear outfit, elaborate Victorian hairstyle, and dainty earrings clearly indicate it is intended to represent a grown woman rather than a child or young girl. Displayed along with the Eliza Lefferts doll in an exhibition called Early American Handicraft at the Brooklyn Museum in 1924, this doll was very recently rediscovered in the Museum’s Decorative Arts holdings and is shown here for the first time in eighty-five years.
MEDIUM
Bisque porcelain, glaze, tinted glaze, paint, glass, adhesive, undyed cotton, horsehair, vegetable tanned leather, cotton, silk, mother-of-pearl, wool, glazed (?) cotton
DATES
ca. 1864
DIMENSIONS
27 1/2 x 17 x 4 1/2 in. (69.9 x 43.2 x 11.4 cm)
MARKINGS
Typewritten paper label pinned to the inside bottom edge of skirt: "DOLL BOUGHT AT THE SANITARY FAIR, 1864/Gift of Mrs. Thomas H. Beardsley/15139 (handwritten in ink)"; tag handwritten in pencil: "15139" sewn to bottom edge of jacket.
ACCESSION NUMBER
24.577
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mrs. Thomas H. Beardsley
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
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