Porcelain Dolls: Delicate Mastery

With their beautiful faces, gorgeous and elaborate clothes and jewelry, accessories like fans and gloves, and universal appeal, porcelain dolls have long been a favorite with collectors. For me, they have always brought back wonderful childhood memories, which is no doubt the case with many of you. Today, there are numerous kinds of porcelain dolls – limited edition, designer, fashion dolls, antique dolls from different countries, miniatures, newborns, and fantasy dolls among them.

These dolls first made an appearance in Europe in the 1800s. In the 1840s, France, Germany, and Denmark were creating porcelain heads for ordinary dolls. These ‘hybrid‘ dolls became enormously popular because with their realistic features and fine craftsmanship, they marked a change from the unsophisticated handmade dolls prevalent in those times.

Initially, the term porcelain doll referred to both china and bisque dolls. Bisque, which is fired twice, with color added after the first firing, produced more realistic looking skin than china. Therefore, by the 1860s, most porcelain dolls were being made with bisque instead of china. Also during this time, porcelain dolls began to be used as a sort of ‘fashion tool’ to educate young girls from wealthy families about the ins and outs of fashion! Like our modern Barbie dolls, entire sets of clothes and accessories would accompany these early porcelain dolls. The young girls were given patterns to sew doll outfits and an entire industry comprising jewelers, milliners, seamstresses, and shoemakers existed for these dolls. Today, these dolls have become highly valued collectibles that cost as much as $20,000!

How do you know if a porcelain doll is truly an antique? Well, one way is to study the hairstyle. It was common for porcelain dolls to be given whatever hairstyle was most fashionable at the time. Any porcelain or bisque doll made before the 1930s is considered antique, while ones from the 1940s and later are vintage. So make sure you understand this difference before you go looking for a collectible.

Originally, though most porcelain dolls were miniature versions of adults, they were among the first dolls made to look like children, and signaled a decline in the popularity of fashion dolls among children. The trend began with the bebes, French dolls that looked like babies.

Today, the two main kinds of porcelain dolls that you can buy: soft-bodied dolls or all-porcelain hard-bodied dolls. Soft-bodied dolls have a soft cloth body with porcelain arms, legs and heads that make them more flexible. However, they have less gorgeous clothes than the hard-bodied dolls, because obviously the latter are more suitable as showpieces than playthings! Both these kinds of dolls can be found anywhere from flea markets to online dealers’ sites, with prices ranging from affordable to astronomical.

Antique porcelain dolls, however, are more usually to be found at auctions or estate sales, in variable conditions. What kind of doll you get depends on how much you pay, since less expensive versions of popular dolls are also available. Generally, though, antique porcelain dolls are priced according to quality. For example, relatively low-quality antique dolls in poor condition are found at bazaars or garage sales.

If your antique porcelain doll is simply dirty rather than actually in a poor condition you can easily clean it using a soft cloth soaked in a mild detergent and water solution, but do not get any cleaner on the wig or hair. Similarly, dust on the face, body and dress can be brushed away using a can of compressed air.

In extreme cases, ask for professional help to restore clothes and dolls, though the materials used can sometimes decrease the value of some antique dolls. Once restored, make sure to properly store your porcelain dolls. Porcelain dolls are extremely sensitive to moisture, which can ruin the paint and clothes and loosen the glue on the hair. Therefore, keep your dolls in moisture-proof, airtight containers. Some collectors actually insure their porcelain dolls to cover certain kinds of damages. And finally, never ever smoke around your porcelain dolls. The damage can be untold!