Early 18th century elegance

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?

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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!

A very unusual and rare doll

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

A very rare very early German wooden

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

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

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