Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
BE979.6.908 |
Object Name |
Doll |
Description |
A wax-covered, composition-headed doll with wooden arms and legs. The hair is painted yellow, and the boots are painted blue. The body is made of cloth and filled with sawdust. |
Year Range from |
1840 |
Year Range to |
1870 |
Dimensions |
H-13 W-22 L-63 cm |
History |
This doll may have originally belonged to Mary Magrath Harris as a child and was possibly passed down to her daughters, Annie and Naomi. Mary grew up at the Erindale Estate with her sisters, Marion and Isobel. The Magrath daughters were raised by their father, William, and their aunt, Anna Cordelia. According to Nora Earnshaw, this style of doll was common in England from the 1840s to the 1870s, during a time when bisque dolls were being produced in great quantities in France and Germany. The body shape may indicate a late 19th-century origin, as the hips are slim—unlike the wider hip preference of the mid-19th century. References: Sayers Family, 1979 Nora Earnshaw "Collecting Dolls" (London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 36-37. |
People |
Magrath, Mary Harris, Annie Harris, Naomi |