A CHAT ABOUT DOLLS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1977, 4 March 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CHAT ABOUT DOLLS.

/7*lIE recent discovery of the Queen's dolls by Sir Henry Poneonby serves to remind us to say a fey- words on this sub-; jecb. Here they are. Ib has long been an admitted facb thab everything has a history, and from the earliest ages, among all nations, civilised and uncivilised, the doll, undei various names, has been the mosb favoured treasure of successive generations of children; and ib has, moreover, for some centuries, aft all events, been of very great importance to the world of fashion. Witness the dolls' heads, "oiled and perfumed," in the hairdressers' windows, and the costume dolls, of such vital importance to large millinery establishment?, and to " complete clothiers." The children of Greece and Rome played with dolls of wood, wax, ivory, and plaster composition ; and the original mate- j rial, in later yeats, has only been varied by the occasional substitution of gutta-percha' and kindred substances, for dolls constructed, of China, are, iv seme instances, excessively! ancient.

In the early Christian Church, the priests presented " little children" brought to them' for baptism wibh a waxen doll, in form of an "Agnus Dei," that their first ideas might!) be associated wibh the Saviour of the world,, and they added also ten "siliquse," or small pieces of silver, to keep the babes in memory, of the Ten Commandments, a cusboni which! might be once more adopted, more usefully,' perhaps than many other modern Ritual- 1 istic revivals. The "ben pieces of silver"! would be a powerful encouragement to the manse's in favour of infanb bapbism, and the scandals in respect of bhe denial of ribe3 of sepulture by a few of our officious and too scrupulous clerics, as frequently bub necessarily referred to in our columns, mighb be thereby avoided, to the increase of Chrisbian charity and goodwill.

The woul "Doll" is Danish, and waa imported into England by " Swoyn of ,bhe Forked Beard" aud his companions. Ib means literally senseless or stupid, and its meaning as applied to images of wax will be at once perceptible. The Greek equivalent is "Eidolon," hence "Idol;" but the Romans called them Pupaj, hence "Puppets" 11 Poppets," by which name dolls were more generally known in England subsequently to the Roman invasion, and until the latter half of the seventeenth century, when i& became only applicable to vnechanical dolls, such as those connected with the well-known exhibition of " Punch and Judy."

We all of us recognise the very great influence that French taste has exercised in 1 the matter of the costume of fashionable people ; and bhe " dress dolls" of the reign of Louis Quatot-ze were especially famous in this connection. The custom of .arraying, these dolls in the prevailing fashions originated in the Salons of the Hotel Ramboiiillcb, where some of them were exhibited, tricked out in Court dresses and ball finery of the latest and most approved designs, while others exhibited the newest and most fashionable morning toilettes. These may be described as the " sealed patterns," which weie duplicated for exportation to! neighbouring countries; and even in war bime special permission was given for the transmission of a " four-foot" doll to this country, in order that English ladies mighb not be deprived of their Parisian dress models. During bhe war of bhe First Napoleon this solitary exportation even was prohibited, and hence the dowdy dresses of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers ; for it is certain that English ladies were at no period so hideously and tastelessly dressed, as exhibited by their pictures, as they were during "--he reigu of George 111. These model d^lls, as proved by the accounts of the Frei/sh kings were sent as long since as 1392 by 'Jharles " the beloved" of Valois to the Queen of England, Anne, daughter of the Emperor. Charles IV., and the first wife of ocv imbecile King Richard 11. ■ . Rather Inter on, we read of presents of this nature to Her Majesty of Spain, and to obher Continental Soveivgns; and Henri Qnabre, during his engagement to the niece of bhe Grand Duke Marie oe Medici, eenb her dolls for a love token, as shown by one of his letters bo thab illustrious lady : " Froutence tells me that you want some patterns of our costumes, I ha r e therefore sent you some dolls en r/runde tciue."

The stalls for bhe sale of chiVlreu's dolla were one of the great features of St. Bartholomew's Fair. They were usually called "Bartholomew Babies," and jthe more, elaborate of bhem were carefully packed and very nicely dressed. Thab dolls have always been popular, not, only with infants v foub with children of larger growth, is evidenced by bhe uncea&ing popularity of wax-work exhibitions of lull-sized dolls, juht as elaborately costumed as they primarily were in France. f , Bub perhaps the most extraordinary use bo which dolls have been ever pub was their ancient adaptation to funeral solemnities. Unbil some forty years- ago the collection of " Royal dolls" at Westminster Abbey was one of the greatest attractions to country visitors, and they were popularly known ji3 the "ragged regiment." There, in ,bhe Abbey, preserved in oaken presses--and possibly still so preserved— were the v^axef tifligies of Edwaid VI., his critnsoa \elven dre-s having the appearance of leather; Queen Eli/abetti, in what was Jefb 0f her Coronation robes ; Jamps 1., William and; Mar 3', aiid Queen Anne. Lord Chatham,! and Lord Nelson, and even Mother Shipton were ultimately added to this strange collection, but the exhibition was closed to' the public in 1839. It had originated in the custom of placing a waxen effigy -,of the deceased on the top of bhe cotiin, wbjch was always observed at bhe State funerals of Kings and of the great nobility ; the figures were arrayed in the best clothes and jewels of the defunct, and fiequently became- the property of bhe church in which ( the corpse wos inferred. Iv obher cases, tVie precious slonea and golden ornaments! \v-ere merely imitabion;., when the disconsolate relatives reflected that they might hays' further use for them after the days of u&ourniug had expired. • ; | Evelyn, in his diary, gives a graphic accounbof Oliver Cromwell's I'unWal, October 22nd, IGoS. " Oliver lying m effigie in Koyal robe&, Mid crowned wiMi a crown, j sceptic, and globe, like a Ki^ig." This particular " doll" was nndirally^ however, 1 destroyed at the Restoration of 1 Monarchy in ]C 89." / Thcie was a collection of simiWr figivresat St. Denis of the French Kings^ — Walpole .saw there in four cupboards, " eight rugged figures of as many monarch* > flown to Louis XIII"— 1013. He was told tr^at Louia Quatoize was to " excessively wrftnkled," thab ib wa& found impossible bo take ia cast of his face after death ; so this strange funeral custom was omitted in his case). Ib will be remembered that in the Middle Ages a waxen doll was a portion bf the 1 invariable " properties" of a witch, amd by (■licking pins into the most vital patyts of the effigy, she was supposed to bo ab|e *to torment her unfortunate victims. Ib ia almost to be wondered ab that the j dollmakers do nob figure among the nineUy-one ! incorporated trades of London, forl the manufacture has alwaya^een a distinct trade, and even bhe varioufe portions sary to make up the complete figure/ have been separate pursuits — such as leg a<nd arm mftkers, head makers, stuffers, anjd wig makers. In 1861 there were twenty-ihree doll-makers in London, bufc Par ; 3 and Holland, and possibly Germany, hy.ve been always the great centres of this profitable industry ;in 1847 bhe value of dolls manufactured in Francs, a.no-inte-1 Io Hotessaguiu than £48,358,- jtfptfv/W tfwwtyi