19TH CENTURY WAX OVER COMPOSITION DOLL

Dating from the mid to late 19th century this beautiful wax doll is almost certainly of English or German origin. Measuring 17 inches in height, she has a wax-over-composition shoulderhead with her original long dark golden blonde human hair which is rooted into the wax. Her hair is still in its original style of two long plaits, and is in wonderful condition with no thinning or fading. Her very expressive dark-brown 'sleep' glass eyes open and close smoothly and her eyelid wax is completely intact and undamaged. Unusually for this type of doll she has an open mouth with a row of tiny white teeth just visible under her bottom lip (I could not get these to show up in her photos, but I do assure you that they ARE there!) As can be seen in the photograph below the letter/number W is impressed on the back of her wax shoulderplate, I think this is possibly a makers mark? Her lower limbs (arms and legs) are made of composition, and she has nicely moulded/detailed hands and painted-on black shoes with little heels. Her limbs have had no overpainting at all and there is no damage loss or wear to her fingers and shoes apart from very minor black paint rubs to her shoes. Her cloth torso and upper limbs are very firmly stuffed with straw, the stiching is perfect and apart from some browning/age discolouration, her cloth torso and upper limbs are in very good condition.
As usual I have photographed this exceptionally beautiful doll outdoors and included the maximum number of supersized pictures in order to show her condition as accurately as possible and as can be seen, as is usually the case with this age and type of doll, the wax-over coating on her composition shoulderhead has a few surface lines/cracks, however with the exception of the one over her right eye the lines are very light/minor indeed and she has none at all on the back of her wax shoulderplate. There is no loss at all to the wax itself, it is 100% complete, and all the surface lines in the wax including the one over her right eye are completely stable and in no danger at all of worsening. The wax is still very firmly in place, with no flaking or crumbling areas. This lovely doll is from my own personal collection and in the four or five years I have owned her none of the lines have altered or worsened at all. She is a very good quality doll, made to a high standard of workmanship, who must of originally been very expensive indeed to buy when new. The wax coating over her composition is extremely thick and a very good colour, and her wax shoulderhead is beautifully modelled. Unusually for this type of doll her head is turned looking towards her left and tilted very slightly downwards, rather than looking straight ahead. Her eyebrows still retain most of their original colour and are clearly defined and and she still has most of her original very tiny painted upper and lower eyelashes, lip colour, and red accent dots to the inner corners of her eyes and her nostrils, as well as a little of her original blushed cheeks.

Of course the outstanding thing about this doll is that she is still dressed in all of her very beautiful, completely original clothes (and there are layer upon layer of them!) I have only ever undressed her twice in the time I have owned her - once when I bought her and once again today to photograph her for this listing. Obviously due to their great age her clothes are a little worn and faded in places - her pink lace bonnet and the lace on her dress are EXTREMELY fragile, the actual dress itself is in good condition but the almost cobweb-fine lace over it is very worn and torn (especially at the front). However, it may well be possible to have this expertly/professionaly restored - I have never got around to this however, and will leave it up to her new owner. The rest of her clothes are in very nice condition for their age with only a little age-wear. Starting with her underwear, her clothes are as follows: three-quarter length lace trimmed pantalettes, knee length high-waisted underdress, over this is a full length sleeveless underdress with very delicate lace edging at neck and arms, a flannel petticoat with hand-embroidered detail around the hem, then her pink (silk? satin?) and lace dress with matching under-bonnet, and over this is her magnificent cloak and her seperate/matching hood which are made of purple velvet, lined with violet silk and lavishly trimmed with faux fur.

~~~~ THIS EXCEPTIONALLY LOVELY DOLL DISPLAYS BEAUTIFULLY ~~~~