The Old Pretenders

A very special new Old Pretender named Eve

2012-01-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

We have a very special and exceptional new Old Pretender up for sale and she is one of our finest for sure. She looks so much like a early antique in every way including her amazing finish and patina which I am so pleased with this time.
She is quite a special doll for me as well as I actually finished her head and torso in Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so since she "came to life" as I call it on Christmas Eve, I have named her Eve.
Her dress fabric is the rarest of the rare and so amazing in person. The photos just do not do it justice. It is a ultra rare ruby red and silver metal thread court dress silk from around 1740. Its in amazing condition and needs to be seen in person for full impact.
She is 15 inches tall and most definitely a masterpiece if I may say so myself. They just don't get better than this one or more "antique" looking.
She is as of yet, not spoken for. Please e-mail us at secretgarden@shaw.ca if interested.

Best Wishes: David & Paul

A wonderful early Lady

2011-12-17T22:29:00.001-08:00

Dressed in an amazing rare piece of early linen with hand done wool work.

Sold

New, Old Pretender

2011-12-17T22:19:00.000-08:00

Sold

A new Old Pretender to make you smile

2011-11-24T17:29:00.001-08:00

This little lady is guaranteed to make you smile.
Full of personality and just wonderful in her dress made from a very early apron from our dear friend Lois.
The fabric is in perfect scale for her and it feels wonderful when holding the doll. She is 11.5 inches tall.
Paul has been calling her Dumpling......for obvious reasons as well as he figures she is a good cook.
David & Paul

Daisy

2011-09-19T01:13:00.004-07:00

What can I say about this adorable little lady? That face makes me SO happy! The moment I completed her, I was smiling the entire day at that little face! I just love everything about her.....and what a profile!
Paul said, she looks like a Daisy.......so that's her name. We rarely name our dolls so she is obviously one of my all time favourites. I made her dress from a very rare piece of 18th century painted cotton. She photographs so well I could not decide which photos to publish so I published them all!

Blogger has evidentially changed to a slide show (which I do not like) when you left click on any of our images to try to enlarge them. Now they do not enlarge to full size.

To see any image full size, right click on the image, then click on "open link in a new tab" for a full sized image.
David

One of my newest Old Pretenders

2011-09-19T00:37:00.005-07:00

When I got out of the hospital and got feeling better, I just had to set down and make a doll that I wanted to make......just loose myself in making it and forget about everything but creating a doll I would be very proud of.....The other thing I wanted to concentrate on with this doll is the best patina I could create and I think I got it.....I decided to show her to some friends and have posted their comments on her below, letting them speak about the doll rather than me.
Best Wishes: David

It is a testament to your empathy with these mute little wooden people that you create them with so much care and consideration for their mythical past and ensure it is truly reflected in their overall finish and look!
I am sure they HAVE existed for centuries and that you have simply rediscovered them trapped in the blocks of wood you find and so you have kindly then released them from their incarceration to live again!!
You are you see actually a very benevolent magician!!
Dollmaker extrordinaire!!
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David, You have excelled yourself......again!!!!
I thought the patina on my doll looked great but this is just as excellent and in her box!!!!!!!!!!!
An absolute TRIUMPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for the photos!
Your amazing skills re the aging process!!! It is truly magical!!!!!!

Dear David,
Thank you so much for all the photos of your latest "doll in a box"!!
She is truly superb!!!
A real work of art!!!!
Absolutely lovely with that, tug at the heartstrings aura that is just impossible to define but you know when it is there!!!
There is a poignancy behind the eyes which shows through onto the finished doll's face and is I am sure just there when you finish certain dolls and although they are all lovely, some do seem to have more "soul" than others if I can define it that way!!This gorgeous latest doll has it in bucket loads!!!
Her dress is amazing too. It looks as if the wrinkles and folds in her sleeves and skirt have been there forever!!
The "dirt" and patination are incredible!! This latest set of photos shows up your consummate skills to their best!!
I don't know how you do it but you have definitely captured the magical touch of bringing real antique dolls to life!!!
I think you and Paul must have been wooden doll makers in olde England in a previous life!!
That is the only explanation for such wonders to behold!!!!

David: I love the doll, her patina is incredible. Even taking into account the lightening affect of the camera flash, I can see the depth of patina that seems to even extend under the surface of the paint! She is amazing in her unbleached linen gown... Very simple, and yes, it would be impossible to distinguish her from an original!
She is so very lovely, dirt & and all! The patina is amazing, the hands a sculptural dream... I don't know how you do it, but I an certainly very glad you do!

A big thank you to everyone for your lovely compliments above!

Blogger has evidentially changed to a slide show (which I do not like) when you left click on any of our images to try to enlarge them. Now they do not enlarge to full size.

To see any image full size, right click on the image, then click on "open link in a new tab" for a full sized image.
David

Saving Elswyth

2011-07-23T22:38:00.001-07:00

This sweet little English wooden named Elswyth that recently came into our lives, was made in the very late 18th century / early 19th century. We were approached by a dealer who ask to completely restore her so she was sent to us for inspection. She is far from the rare and wonderful early 18th century dolls but from the moment she arrived, it was very obvious that her paint and patina is 100% all original and she is loaded with personality.
When she arrived here she captured my heart and I could just not put her aside. For a week or more, I carried her around with me and took her with me into the studio to start to work on her and every time I sat down to undress her or start the restoration, I just could not force myself to touch her in anyway.
Every day, I did the same thing, over and over. Carry her into the studio, look at that face and say, no way, I just can't do it.....
We were ask to completely restore and repaint her face and body and replace her arms and legs with correct wooden replacements along with re-dressing her. Basically there would be nothing left of her all original paint and her originality which made me feel just terrible and very anxious.
Elswyth may be the last phase of English wooden made in the late 18th/early 19th century but she is quite rare because she has remained completely untouched since the 1820's/1830's and this is a rarity for a little English wooden of any period.
Granted, as you can see, she had lost her original legs and arms but they were lost very early on in her life and were lovingly replaced as best as was possible by her little owner in the early 1800's with the most adorable cloth arms and legs and her lower body was covered as well, giving her a plump look in her simple dress. Her very simple and adorable but crudely made dress was made at the same time out of polished cotton dating from the 1820's/1830's and she has her original bonnet on as well. She has obviously remained untouched and exactly as she is today for almost 200 years now. Her sweet face shows signs of her age but I just could not bring myself to touch her and her surface finish and paint are stable so why ruin her I ask???
As you will see in the first two photos of her below, there was only one very distracting pop off of the paint layer, down to the plaster layer, just below her nose which ran down through her lips. This is the ONLY restoration I have done on her period (as seen in the third photo) and no one could really ever tell by just looking at her in person that her lips have had this small restoration. Of course I only put paint back where it was missing when restoring this area for her, giving her hint of a smile back to her.
Every time I started to undress her and remove those simple little arms and legs, something inside me said NO WAY! I just can't do it!
SO. I ask her owner, if they would please just sell her to us as is and they agreed.
Elswyth now lives here with us, resting on her own very special settee which sets right by my chair in our living room. We are so happy to have her and she will remain untouched and just as she is and has been for almost 200 years, as long as we are her caretakers.
I hope everyone enjoys the photos of this very simple but very special little survivor that has won my heart from the moment I unwrapped her. When anyone sees her in person, its so obvious that this little doll was so loved when she was new and throughout her entire life.
She is one of my favourite dolls now and will always be and I have a feeling, if she could talk to us, I think she would be one of the happiest doll we have ever know.
Just look at that face.
Hope everyone enjoys the photos and her story. Remember to click on the small images to enlarge them quite a bit to see the detail.

Blogger has evidentially changed to a slide show (which I do not like) when you left click on any of our images to try to enlarge them. Now they do not enlarge to full size.

To see any image full size, right click on the image, then click on "open link in a new tab" for a full sized image.
David & Paul

News from The Old Pretenders

2011-07-10T20:21:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone....David here.....I just wanted to let everyone know that we have not stopped making dolls or posting new dolls to our blog.

I have been in the hospital since last Monday and got home last Thursday.
I had been having some strange shortness of breath and dull chest pain with pain down my arms when I walk or exert myself in the slightest for the past week or two but goes away as soon as I stop. I have never had this problem till now. As a matter of fact, I have never been really sick or in hospital or had a major medical procedure in my life and I am 52 years old.
I have a very good diet, I have never smoked, don't drink, do not have high blood pressure or high cholesterol either. There is no history in either side of my family of heart problems or heart disease.
Last weekend the pressure and chest pain and arm pain happened at rest for over an hour......that scared me!
I went to my Doctor last Monday and he sent me right to the hospital in Nanaimo and sure enough I had had a mild cardiac incident, they hesitate to call it a heart attack because it was mild but there was a small amount of the enzyme that your heart releases into your blood when you have a heart attack so that's technically what it was. They rushed me Tuesday evening to Victoria by ambulance to the hospital where they have the best cardiac unit on Vancouver island and they did a angiogram Wednesday and found that I had one major artery on my heart that was totally blocked and collapsed with a blood clot....Just one and none of the others have any blockages at all but the one was enough to do it. While they were in there with the angiogram and the probe all the way up to my heart through a artery in my wrist the put a stint in that artery to open it and fixed the problem. I have to be on blood thinners now for a year (to keep blood clots from forming for the first 4 months around the wire mess stint which will be covered up by new artery after 4 months, and beta blockers to keep the heart in a slower rhythm, cholesterol reducer even though I really don't have high cholesterol and 81mg aspirin for the rest of my life. For someone who has never been on medications before this is even a bit hard to swallow for me! Especially with the blood thinners which they said try not to get cut and you will bruise easily.....my stomach is all bruised from getting injections of blood thinner which worked instantly for the 4 days I was in hospital.
Hopefully this will be the end of any problems but this was sure scary and I went from feeling like I was the healthiest guy ever as I have always felt to a life changing experience.....nothing will be quite the same again as far as taking my health for granted goes.
I can't use my wrist or my fingers on my right hand because it could cause the puncture wound on my wrist and the artery where they went through to start free bleeding and to hemorrhage. They told me to take the dressing off Thursday when I got home, 24 hours after the procedure and I waited several hours more and it still bled like crazy! Talk about scary! There was blood all over the bathroom from this little puncture wound and pooling under my skin of my arm as well. Of course its a puncture wound through my skin into a artery. We called the ambulance which is not far away from us and I have known the paramedic who showed up for 14 years and as soon as she saw me, she said we are taking you across the water again to the hospital, so there I was, right back in the emergency room in Nanaimo where this all started on Monday. Luckily this time I was in there less than one hour so right back on the next ferry to Gabriola. I was concerned about this happening since they have me on blood thinners and it was double blood thinners for the 4 days in the hospital....I just hope I don't get any of the other side effects of the blood thinner which I have to take for a year or any of the other 3 meds I have to take....they said if I even miss one dose of the blood thinner, I am in danger of a blood clot forming on the stint till the artery skins it over in about 4 months. Time to rest....hopefully we will be back making dolls soon.
Best Wishes; David

Late 17th Century Lady

2011-05-29T00:10:00.000-07:00

We love the very rare late 17th century English wooden dolls and there are only two extremely rare antique examples of this doll from the 1690's known to exist. We based our doll, which is as close as possible to an exact copy of the antique, and made for our personal collection, on one of the two antiques from the 1690's we have had the privilege to have here with us. She has become one of my all time favourites now. We have been very lucky to have one of the rarest examples of a 17th century English woodens from the 1680's made by William Higgs here with us as well as this fine ladies antique 17th century counterpart. We feel very strongly that the antique example of this doll could very well have been made by Higgs due to the extremely close body type, proportions, hip and leg style, hand type, painting and carving style. I suppose it could have been made by one of Higgs apprentices but either way, we feel its from his workshop in Whitechaple 1690's and not by Newton, his competition at the time.
We hope you enjoy the photos.

Golden Elegance

2011-03-09T12:42:00.006-08:00

I have been working on a new larger doll and her dress now for a while which has been very difficult and labour intensive. I wanted her to be the most historically correct and authentic early English wooden circa 1740 so that no one could tell her apart from a antique. I had to make sure she was as perfect as I could possible make her and her dress, with all the attributes, correct face, body type, carving style on the doll and sewing techniques on the dress exactly like a all original antique example.

The dress was even more challenging as it is made out of a very rare and my personal favourite piece of the most wonderful 18th century reverse sateen true silk damask fabric I got from England last year or the year before. Its in one of my all time favourite colours which I had been looking for, for many years, the 18th century citron yellow which is seen in a lot of 18th century dresses in museums but nearly impossible to find today. Its so soft and shifty and thin so its so hard to work with but this makes the drape of the dress wonderful and the puddling effect of the fabric in the train I love as well.
Also, being a solid colour, every detail has to be perfect or mistakes would show. You can't hide anything like you can with a patterned fabric.
Everything had to be lined and backed to give some body but its really amazing now that its complete. The stomacher took me days to make which is rare but it is constructed like the real thing and I even carved and sanded super thin tapered bones out of bamboo for the stays / boning in the stomach which you can see through it.
I worked for over 12 hours on her bonnet as well and what a lot of work it was but it turned out really nice.
I am so pleased with this doll and feel its my best and finest doll to date. A doll that I feel no one could ever tell in person that it was not a antique as every element of the doll, the patina and the dress is exactly right and historically correct and I would not change a thing. This is rare for me as I am never 100% pleased with every tiny detail on any doll, being a perfectionist here. I hesitate to call her my masterpiece that I have been working towards creating for 7 or 8 years but that's really what she is to me.....and what several friends have called her who have seen a sneak preview.
One friend said.....
"Well, I think this doll is magnificent...one of the best you have ever done. I love her dress and presentation...the only thing that keeps her from looking like an antique is that she is not dirty or beat up. Great job, really."
My answer to this......"its funny you would notice the lack of dirt and dings on her. I said to Paul her dirt does not show up in the flash photos......In person, she has the perfect amount of dust (to simulate coal dust) dirt and subtle dinge in all the right places, collected between her bodice and bust line, front and back, the dress around the bottom hem and all the right spots from "250+ years of handling" and the dinge and patina in person matches from the doll, to the dress to the undergarments all equally so its there, it just does not show with the flash photography....... I bet it will show better in outside photos with natural light and no flash.....Also, her aging and distressing to the doll herself and her finish did not show up well in the flash photos......
We shall see how much her aging and patina and dinge shows in the outside photos when I take them.
In the meantime, I'll share some lovely comments from friends who have seen a sneak peek of her and also the flash photos of her which I am very pleased with.
David

"I don't know which side of her I love best! She is as beautiful from the back as she is from the front. The way the dress flows at the back is incredible. Funnily enough I am working on an article and the picture I have attached was in front of me when I received your email. The dolls have the same bonnet! I am in awe of your ability and congratulate you on this work of art. Thank-you so much for sharing her with me. Congratulations!"

"STUNNING! she is absolutely stunning. I love everything about her. Her face is so beautiful. I cannot single out any thing favorite because it is all perfect.
As always you have done it again. Thank you thank you for sending me all these wonderful pictures, she shows so well against the black.
Cheers!"

"Your new doll looks truly fabulous, my heart skipped a beat when I saw it, a combination of the fabric you purchased from me and your incredible skill with cut and style, possible the finest doll so far."

"Oh my gosh, David, she is BEAUTIFUL. I absolutely LOVE this dress, you are honestly amazing. No one can touch or come close to what you two create."
"Your newest doll is certainly a masterpiece!"

"She is absolutely spectacular and impossible to tell from a antique! You have outdone yourself this time for sure! She is so lovely and the bonnet you made is a marvel in itself. So beautiful and I was shocked when I saw your hand and realized the size of the bonnet. She is perfect! I don't think people realize the time and effort that is spent making even the smallest elements of your dolls and their dress ensembles. Your said the bonnet on the new doll took over 12 hours? So beautiful!"

"There could not be a antique English wooden, any finer or more wonderful than this doll. No one, not even a expert, (but then again you two ARE the experts) could tell this is not a early antique English wooden"

"Oh my goodness David, she is a real beauty, you must be so proud. Her gown is so exquisite in cut, fit & style, a masterpiece indeed! The way the silk hangs and clings is quite mesmerizing, the colour is so rich and opulent, I think she has to be my favourite out of all your 'posh' young ladies so far; as you know, I have a real soft-spot for the slightly poorer more modest dollies. Thank you again for so generously sharing your creations with me, a wonderful set of photographs to wake up to this morning, what a perfect start to the day!"

Thank you to everyone for these lovely compliments. As per usual, click on any image for a large scale view.
David

Our newest William and Mary period doll

2011-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

Presenting our newest William and Mary period English wooden, based on very rare antique example, especially the face type and painting style.
She is about 13 inches tall.
Hope everyone enjoys the photos.

A recient Lady

2010-12-23T02:03:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone......Here is our most recent lady standing 17 inches tall and in her deceptively simple and elegant dress. I am so pleased with the perfect fit of this dress, the tight as a glove bodice / stomacher and the beautiful drape of the dress in the back. The patterns of the antique wool are so wonderful to work with as well and make the antique wools one of my favourite fabrics to work with.
I think this one has soul and such a interesting expression and personality. What do you think she is thinking?

Our newest early 18th century beauty

2010-12-05T23:59:00.001-08:00

I am so pleased with every aspect of this doll. As my own worst critic and being a stickler for no artistic license aloud on our dolls and 100% authenticity to the antiques always, I rarely complete a doll that I would not or do not make changes on, but this is one doll that falls into that rare category of "I would not change a thing". I love everything about this doll from her face, personality, carving style and proportions, her painting and patina, her dress and shoes and so on.

She has the most amazing real antique look in person and feel in hand and I am just so pleased with every aspect of this doll.
A big thank you to our lovely friend Lois for her beautiful early dress fabric that just worked up amazing and feels amazing as well when handling the doll.
I hope everyone enjoys seeing her. Remember to click on the photos if you want to see a full sized image.

David

My Favorite doll / answering a question I hear from time to time.

2010-11-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

I have had followers ask, out of all the dolls we have made, which is my favourite or do I have a favourite.

Its funny, one might think this would be a very hard question to answer but its not for me. You might think my favourite would be my most recent doll and of course the most recent is usually the best as with any artist. The more dolls we make, the more we perfect our work and of course the newest doll are always among my favourites.

I take the process of creating a doll very seriously and I put so much though, effort and energy into each and every one to make them come to life and give them a personality and a wonderful accurate and correct patina.
As I complete a doll and it "comes to life" so to speak, on occasion, one will really speak to me. This doll is the one which from the moment I finished her, spoken to me the most.

She is not a fancy doll, she is not even 100% correct in every way for a late 17th century English wooden, and for anyone who knows me, they know I am a real stickler for perfection and authenticity in every way and I am not happy unless all aspects of a doll are as perfect as I can make it.

Having said that, this little William and Mary period imp with her adorable face and sweet expression captured my heart from the moment she was complete and I always keep her close by. She can even lift my spirits and make me smile, after a really hard or bad day.

So here she is, new photos of David's all time favourite. I would love to hear comments from our followers about her.
Click on the small images as always for large detail photos.

Oh so rare

2010-11-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

I love this doll for many obvious reasons like her face and patina, but one reason for sure would be her fabric. This is one of the rarest of the rare mid 18th century fabrics that one can find today. It is a early painted Indian cotton print. In its day, this import fabric was not costly like silks and would have been far more utilitarian in use. Because so little of it has survived today, its become such a rare treasure.

Early 18th century elegance

2010-11-03T18:03:00.001-07:00

I think this doll has a wonderful patina and wonderfully expressive eyes. Makes you wonder what she is thinking?

UPDATE: I received a lovely compliment on this doll from a follower of our blog. She wrote:

Greetings,
All so lovely...
Re: Early 18th century elegance - she is so beautiful, she looks like an angel. Her eyes are incredible - she almost looks sad, but it is a beautiful sadness. I wonder what the person who made her was thinking?

______________________

Always a lovely compliment when one of our dolls is mistaken for a original antique and truth be told, it happens a lot, but this lovely lady with her very convincing patina was made by David about a year and a half ago so she is just a babe in years. Thank you for the compliment!

Another lovely little late 17th century English wooden

2010-11-03T18:02:00.002-07:00

A very unusual and rare doll

2010-11-03T18:01:00.001-07:00

We based this very unique doll on a antique example of a very rare 18th century wooden.

A very rare very early German wooden

2010-11-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

We were asked to dress this extremely rare and very early German wooden. To our knowledge, we have never seen another like this one. Note her very unusual neck pinning which allows her to nod her head up and down. Her body also has a carved stomacher carved right into the dolls torso which we followed when making the bodice. We were very pleased with the way this dolls dress turned out as was her owner.

More mid 18th century elegance

2010-09-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone: In my last post and e-mail that I sent out about my newest wooden that I was so pleased with, I mentioned that she did not work with the rare 1750's aqua silk, silver stomacher and shoes I made which I had planned on dressing her in.
I have now finished the doll for the 18th century aqua and silver fabric from a court dress and the silver stomacher and this time, the fabric and colour are perfect for my new doll.
Our friend Ulla (Ullabenulla blog) to compliment the last doll and agreed that the aqua fabric was not her colour.
Paul wrote her back and said.........

"Glad you enjoyed seeing the new doll and you are right... the aqua silk with the silver metallic just did not do her justice. This vexed David something terrible and he had made that lovely stomacher and an exquisite pair of tiny shoes in aqua silk for the doll. What to do? Well if you are David, you sit down and craft a sister doll with all of the same qualities as the first one but with a more subtle palette, paler skin tone and decoration, carved specifically to fit the existing clothing elements and to compliment that exquisite and rare 18th century court dress taffeta. And that is exactly what we did! He finally finished her last evening. Did she ever turn out beautifully. I'm sure David will be taking lots of pictures of her so you will see her soon."

Paul was right, I love this doll and so here are all those photos he said I would be taking....
Not only is the aqua and silver silk mid 18th century but so is the stomacher fabric and so is the really exquisite lace on the doll as well. She even has her Old Pretenders mask in hand in a couple of the photos.
Hope everyone enjoys seeing her.

Best Wishes: David

A certain haunting beauty and serenity about her

2010-08-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone: I just finished a doll a couple weeks ago and I think she may be one of my favourite dolls I have ever made, so I wanted to share her photos with you. I am so pleased with her in every way!

Several people we know have said that "there is a certain haunting beauty and serenity about her."
I liked this comment about her.

I intended to dress her in the rare pale aqua dress silk with silver gilt thread from 1750 and use a really nice silver stomacher I made a while back. I even had her shoes made out of the aqua fabric but the colour just did not look good on this doll. It really did nothing for her. On the other hand, this early wool that I had was the perfect match for her and just made the doll stand out beautifully.
The fabric patina matches the dolls patina perfectly making it look as if the dress has been on her for many many years.
I was able to do some creative matching up of patterns with the wool of the dress to work into a very lovely and intricate mirror image pattern. She has a very fancy pair of shoes I made for her but chose to make her a more simple (not simple to make mind you) pair of traditional leather lace up shoes to wear. She can keep her fancy shoes for a special occasion.
I am very pleased with the patina I was able to accomplish on the brown leather shoes and they fit tight as a glove.
I am particularly pleased with the early antique trim and lace detail work around the top of the bodice and stomacher because of the patina which worked out just as I had hoped. Its very hard to make even very early fabric, trim, lace and such as I have used here to appear to have been almost fused onto the doll like when you see a antique example with all original sewn on clothing. It's very hard to explain just what I mean when I say, the dress looks like its been on the doll for 250+ years but you should get a idea when you look at the detail photos.
You may notice in the detail photos, she has what appears to be a couple hundred years of accumulated dust and dirt that shows up around the bust line where you just can't quite clean it out, just like the coal dust on a antique example from setting around or laying around for a couple hundred years in a 17th or 18th century cottage in England. OK so my dolls 250+ year old patina and 250+ years of coal dust and dirt happened in just a few days but no one would know that who didn't know she is a Old Pretender.

The last 2 photos attached here is the 1750's aqua silk, silver stomacher and shoes I made which I had planned on dressing her in but it just did not work on this doll.

I am now working on a doll for the 18th century aqua fabric and the silver stomacher....hopefully this will be the one it works perfect on.

David

A very special little late 17th century Lady

2010-08-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Now for something a little different but quite rare. We have based our newest late 17th century English wooden on a couple of very rare antique examples from the 1690's.
The antique examples are quite small as is our example below. The antiques and our doll are carved from the waist up like the larger examples of William and Mary period dolls, just a bit simpler and cruder but from the waist down, they are basically a stump. We are very pleased with how she turned out and I really love the hands Paul carved for this one.
We think our little lady has quite the amazing face and personality for her small size of 7.5 inches tall. Her face and expression in her portrait photos are particularly haunting and soulful I think.
Click on the photos for a large view of her great patina and details that I am very pleased with.
She is currently available but will probably not be here for long so e-mail us if you are interested in her.
David & Paul

Our newest William and Mary period Lady

2010-08-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

We would like to present our newest William and Mary period English wooden. She is based on a very rare brown eyed antique example from around 1690. Her face detail and painting is exactly the same as the antiques as well.
We think she has a very sweet expression, more like a young lady rather than the mature, disapproving and stern look that most 17th century examples have. The antique doll has this same sweeter expression.
The wonderful and very early fabric worked up great and with our "magic touch", looks like its been on this doll for over 300 years. (see the detail photos) Combine this and the great patina work we have accomplished on this doll and she looks every bit the antique.
We hope everyone enjoys seeing this lovely young lady.

UPDATE:

We just received a very nice comment on this doll from the new owner and wanted to post it above the dolls photos. Thank you!

"I just received this doll as a birthday gift and can confirm that she is even more spectacular in person--I really feel as though I am looking at a genuine antique. As I live in a circa 1690 home, she is the perfect addition to my decor. Amazing craftsmanship, thanks!"

Revisiting a portrait of one of my favourite William and Mary Ladies

2010-06-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

Mid 18th century elegance

2010-06-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

This elegant lady is 14 inches tall and dressed in several very beautiful and rare pieces of 18th century fabrics and a few accent details from the leftover rare 18th century flybraid I used when dressing Flora. Her face in particular is based on a antique example from around 1735.

She is a VERY elegant doll with the most elaborate and intricate court dress. The total package of this doll, her elaborate dress and very detailed wig, is for sure one of our finest. She is available and e-mail inquiries are welcome.
Remember to click on each image to see a full size view.
Enjoy the photos.
The Old Pretenders

A most beautiful and serene William and Mary Lady

2010-04-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

Our newest William and Mary period English wooden is dressed in a lovely antique wool paisley. We are so pleased with this one in so many ways, including her very beautiful and expressive face and serene expression. Understated elegance for sure.
She is on her way in a few days to her new home in Australia.

300+ years old? or a 30 day old (Old Pretender)?

2010-04-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

On occasion I still have to set down and make a doll just for me and it has to be a challenge. This particular challenge was to create a W&M period doll that has the most authentic 300+ year old patina but also to carry and create that same 300+ year old patina right into her dress as well. I wanted this doll to look like her dress has been on her for 300+ years and I am very pleased with the results. I think everyone will agree, its very hard if not impossible to tell this doll and dress are only a month old.

Hope everyone enjoys the photos.

David

A new life for a lovely old 18th century dress

2010-03-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Introducing our newest William and Mary Period doll loosely based on late 17th century antique referred to as Lady Elton.
I am so pleased with this doll and her dress for several reasons. The doll herself looks so much like the antique Lady Elton and her dress, although not an exact copy, is based in part on the style and silhouette of the original.
Nothing is more satisfying for me than to have a doll turn out so well in all aspects but even more, to be able to dress one in a wonderful dress fragment of mid 18th century fabric and trim. We were lucky to get this amazing English bodice piece from a ladies dress, basically the right side and sleeve of a 18th century silk taffeta bodice and the 18th century English fly braid trim that was with it.
Its so rewarding and satisfying for me to be able to take this piece of a dress and give it new life on one of our dolls, a fitting tribute I think to the person who put so much work into this dress originally. The original stitching was so intricate and amazing as was the ruching and I have done my best to preserve and save most all of it right as it was on our dolls dress. The original ruching is still intact as well. Every element of this doll's dress was on the original lady's dress from the 18th century.
I think this doll dress is proof that if we do use fabric from a existing garment, it is a garment that is at the end of its long life and worth as a rare intact garment, and what we do with it gives it a new life for many years to come. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know what the dress looked like on the lady who owned or made it in the 18th century and the long history of the dress?
We hope everyone enjoys the photos. The last photo down is the bodice fragment as it came to us.
The Old Pretenders

Good things come in small packages!

2010-02-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

UPDATE! MARCH 1st.

We are pleased to present the newest Old Pretenders, and we think they both are little gems and we do mean "little" as they are all of 7.5" tall.

The first is dressed in a really rare and beautiful 18th century silk so delicate with tiny roses and buds in perfect scale for this lovely little doll, in the palest shades of rose and celery green with a pale mushroom background. She is so detailed that without a reference to scale in a photo, one could easily be fooled into thinking she was a larger doll. Her hair colour is the perfect compliment to her completion and dress.

The second is lovely in tone on tone shades of ivory with the ever so subtle hint of colours brought in from the tiny floral in the rare 18th century silk brocade of her dress. She has lovely pale complexion and her wig is fashioned from antique pale blonde hair. She is just a lovely wash of tone on tone ivory and blonde and every element on her is perfect to scale.

They both have fully jointed legs allowing them to sit beautifully... Oh and did we mention they both have shoes?

FLORA

2010-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.....Here is another of my favourite English woodens we have made. I am posting a few favourites of mine even though some of their photo appear in earlier posts. Mainly to tell a little bit of their stories, as suggested and asked for by our dear friend Ulla (ullabenulla) see link below to the right. She said she was missing reading the stories I write when we e-mail out photos of our dolls.

The 16.5 inch doll itself was based on a antique example from the 1735 / 1740 era.
Her dress was my creation and not based on the antique's dress and it is 18th century fabric along with some "rare as hen's teeth" 18th century fly-braid. I had always wanted to find some antique 18th century fly-braid but its nearly impossible to find. When we did find a piece and usually a small piece, it was priced between $1000.00 and $2000.00.
We lucked our and got the piece that's featured on this dolls dress and stomacher. It was about 3 feet long and we paid a LOT of money for it....lets just say we got it under the $1000.00 mark but its so rare and so amazing I had to have it.
Here it is showcased on the doll I named "Flora"......

Now people who know us, know we usually do not name our dolls but this name just seemed to fit this doll and it was my wonderful Grandmothers name (actually Flora Letha) who I was SO close to. She passed away when I was 17. The first photo is of my Grandmother Flora.
I hope you enjoy the photos.

Best Wishes to all!

A question from one of our blog readers

2010-01-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone: We have been asked the question below by one of our kind followers of our blog.........

"Could you share some of your research info? Your dolls are wonderful! There is so little info in print about the history of these ladies, but a lot of misinformation!"

We really appreciate the wonderful praise and compliments so much from everyone but I felt I needed to publically address why this question cannot be answered on our blog, and why no techniques and undressed dolls will appear here. I even hesitate to put such detailed photos of any of our dolls and dresses up but how else will the fans of our work get to see it.

To answer our readers question:

We have spent years of research on 17th and 18th century English wooden dolls, including quite a bit of time over a 3 year period in England handled quite a few of the rarest examples. There is not much we do not know or can't answer about these dolls. We have worked for years perfecting our dolls to be the only historically accurate museum quality reproductions made by anyone today with their quality, accuracy and patinas so I am afraid we do not openly share our techniques or knowledge we have learned so far but its for a good reason.

One reason is that there have been very underhanded people out there who have tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to copy our work and get a quick and free ride on our success, and have even harassed and tried their best to pump a couple of or best friends to try to get as much information out of them about how we make our dolls, our techniques and research. We even found out that one of the people on our long time mailing list was forwarding every photo we e-mailed to her, to this underhanded person. Lucky for us, our friends are very loyal to us and cannot stomach this kind of behavior.

The second reason is that we will be writing a book on 17th and 18th century English wooden dolls one day in the future which will finally mean a book with only the most accurate and correct information on English woodens of the 17th and 18th century which will prove a lot of info out there in books to be totally incorrect. A perfect example of this misinformation out there is all references to how the late 17th century English wooden dolls were carved and turned...........I am afraid they are all totally wrong! We know this because we have one here.
There will be so much information in our book that will prove wrong a lot of what has been written.

Again, thanks to everyone for all your wonderful comments and praise. It makes what we do even more fulfilling for us.
(I love the one saying we must be time traveling doll makers from the past ;o)

Best Wishes: The Old Pretenders

A nice example of our restoration work

2010-01-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

I thought everyone might enjoy seeing a good example of our restoration work on this large English wooden dating from the 1735 / 1740 period. She had been terribly and incorrectly rebuilt and repainted and looked nothing like she would have looked when all original. I was able to strip off all the mess and rebuilt areas but found over 80 wood worm holes in the face. Her nose was gone as was part of her lips but there was enough left for me to know the exact style of carving and detail to know how to put everything back as it would have been originally. We have seen so many early English woodens over the years that we can attribute most of them to a carver / doll maker by their distinct features and carving style. No one knows the names of these 18th century doll makers but I can say for instance, those 4 dolls were made by the same hand and those 3 dolls were made by the same maker and so on.

Anyway, this very large and grand ladie's face is now restored back to her former glory with the patina of her face matchubg perfectly to her bust and torso and her poorly replaced arms, hands and legs correctly replaced and aged by us. She is loved very much now by her owner.

I though everyone would enjoy seeing her transformation. Please click on the images below to see them in large format with lots of detail.

One of our finest Ladies

2010-01-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone: I realized that I had not posted the seated images of one of our finest and one of my favourite large dolls (20 inches tall) that I dressed in one of my most favourite and rare pieces of 17th century fabric I have ever worked with. It's tough as nails and a royal pain to hand sew. It took antique glovers needles for me to sew the dress and I even broke one of the glovers needles and they are so strong.

She is a reproduction of a true "Queen Anne" period English wooden. Anyone who knows me, knows that one of my pet peeves is the referring to all 17th and 18th century English wooden dolls incorrectly as "Queen Anne dolls" The only dolls that can be correctly referred to as "Queen Anne" are the dolls made from 1702 to 1714, during her reign....OK so I'm being picky LOL

Anyway, these images are some of my favourites of her so I though I would share them. I have included a couple details of the fabric for all the early textile lovers out there.

Best Wishes!
The Old Pretenders

Our thanks to some very special people

2010-01-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

We would like to make a very important post today to thank some very special people and friends for their non-stop support, praise and admiration of our work. We appreciate all of you for your help and friendship!

Donna and Keith Kaonis / Antique Doll Collector Magazine for their friendship and generosity and everything they have done for us.

Our dear friends Ulla Milbrath (ullabenulla), Lois Davidson (Morgaine Le Fay antique Textiles and More) and Lynn Murray for their friendship, support and all their help in so many ways.

Our dear friend Robin Thompson for SO many reasons!

A special thank you to our friends and special patrons Rene Perkins and Carol Ohnemus and to all of our supporters over the years. Each and every one of you, your compliments and appreciation of our work are very important to us and one of the reasons we make dolls.

The Old Pretenders

Most recent Old Pretenders

2010-01-16T17:22:00.000-08:00

More recent Old Pretenders

2010-01-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

Our Reproduction of Mary Devis / circa 1735

The second Mary

William and Mary Period Old Pretenders

2010-01-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

Antique William and Mary English wooden and our reproduction

Smaller Old Pretenders

2010-01-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

Lord Grey and his Ladies

under 6 inches tall

A few larger dolls

2010-01-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

Old Pretenders

2010-01-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

Since we have made hundreds of dolls over the past seven years, it would be way to big a task to post them all at once on this new blog, so we are going to start with a small selection of dolls made in the past few years.

This next one was a favourite and is definitely up to something! Here comes trouble!

Feebee

The Old Pretenders Studio

2010-01-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

The Old Pretenders studio offers collectors the finest quality reproductions of English wooden dolls in the 17th and 18th century manner. Each one of a kind creation is handcrafted individually using traditional techniques and an eye for authenticity in every detail.

Our dolls feature custom made enamel eyes, appropriately fashioned wigs and meticulously researched costumes. As often as possible: 17th and 18th century antique textiles, trim work and lace are used in order to recreate a doll that looks and feels every bit as authentic as an original example.

The Old Pretenders studio also offers a complete range of restoration services for antique English wooden dolls. Whether a doll needs subtle conservation, limb replacement or repair or a complete refinishing and re-costuming- it will be done with the utmost care. We take into consideration many factors when approaching any doll’s restoration ensuring that the end results are in keeping with it’s age and original design.