Saturday, March 1, 2014

A Beautiful and Elegant new Old Pretender

Esthetically, the 18th century English wooden doll is many things. They can be quite naïve or charming in their simplicity, haughty, sophisticated, sometimes even graceful or even soulful in their countenance, but its rare when they can be referred to as “Pretty”. We are very mindful of when fashioning a reproduction to maintain authenticity and always historically correctness, which can result in the dolls being simple, elaborate, elegant, haughty, graceful or soulful, so it’s always a pleasant surprise when a special doll comes together to embody all of these qualities and turns out exquisitely pretty as well. Such is the case with this newest little gem. Standing at about 30 cm. / 12” tall she has the presence of a much larger rare and early example.

It was immediate for us to see that the rare fabric we chose for her dress was such a perfect choice for her. Her dress fabric dates from the first third of the 18th century and is a very rare piece of court dress silk. We used some of our very rare 18th century fly braid for trim as it was the perfect match to the amazing colour of the flowers in the court dress silk.
Her painting, patina and finish are amazing in person and impossible to tell the patina did not take almost 300 years to develop.
We hope everyone enjoys her photos.
David & Paul