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China Heads: An Overview of an Iconic Antique Doll, Children of Glass and Shine

Below is my original post; I am updating with some information on the Czech Venus figure, which is the oldest known ceramic object, at least that has survived.  For thousands of years, terracotta and clay figures have survived, and they are precursors to our porcelain and ceramic dolls and figures.  Faience, a paste made of crushed glass, and sometime sand and clay, dates to the Ancient Egyptians.  Some type of glazed ceramics has existed since the Middle Ages, and  Della Robbia ceramics were popular dating to the Renaissance, and Baroque era.  17th century ceramics show up on the British Antiques Road Show, and also in museums. See the information below as an update;

Venus of Dolne Vestonice, via Wiki Commons and Public Domain Image

Venus of Dolni Vestonice (26,000 - 24,000 BCE). http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-of-dolni-vestonice.htm.

"The Czech prehistoric sculpture known as the Dolní Vestonice (Vestonická Venuše) is the oldest known work of terracotta sculpture in the world. Belonging to the genre of Venus figurines carved predominantly during the Gravettian culture (c.26,000-20,000 BCE) of the Upper Paleolithic, this astounding item of prehistoric art was found at a Stone Age settlement in the Moravian basin south of Brno, in the Czech Republic. Like the famous Venus of Willendorf (c.25,000 BCE), the Venus of Dolni Vestonice now resides in the Vienna Natural History Museum. Although recently exhibited in the Mammoth Hunters Exhibition (2006-7) at the National Museum in Prague, and at the Prehistoric Art in Central Europe show in Brno, the sculpture is rarely displayed in public, and whenever it leaves Vienna, it is usually accompanied by an armed escort." (visualarts-cork.com)

China Heads: These glazed porcelain heads first showed themselves in about 1830-40, with some bald examples called Bidemeier dolls. Some of these heads boast a black sot for a wig.have excellent examples. There were glazed figurines even before this, with busts dating to the 17th century, and Della Robbia porcelains dating to the Renaissance. Glazed pottery were also found in Ancient Rome and Egypt.  Meissen and Staffordshire figurines are older, but it is true that you often see these types of heads on dolls, and doll heads share the same hairdos. The same is true of stone bisque or Parian dolls and bonnet heads; their hairdos and faces early on figurines as well as dolls.

Royal Copenhagen made lovely brown haired dolls, featured in John Noble's books and in books by Eleanor St. George, and at least one “portrait” head of Jenny Lind in a dark wig is attributed to RC. Royal Doulton joined with Peggy Nisbet of England about this time  to create a series of dolls, including one of the infant prince William and a series of about out 9 in little girls showcasing Days of the Week.

The Chinese and later Japanese brought china production to a fine art, and these examples, Ming, Satsuma [from which figurine dolls are made today] and other figures are very collectible. China dishes seem to come into use in the 18th century, with the ubiquitous Blue Willow pattern still being used today. I also collect BW and look for examples in old TV shows like Daniel Boone and Dark Shadows. You can find a set on display at Hearst Castle in Sam Simeon, too.China comes from white kaolin clay. I’ve made small toys and figurines from it, sometimes glazed, in art classes.Bone china, which I collected in the forms of mini animals and teacups, actually is fired with ground bone and ash. Wedgwood, Noritake, and Royal Doulton still make fine bone china dishes. Haviland china is another company that made gorgeous china in various patterns.

For me, china heads are the quintessential antique dolls. I saw my first ones when I was in kindergarten, and received my first when I was 8, not counting the Frozen Charlotte Mom and I bought at the Women’s Club Antique Show when I was 7. My first was Japanese, with the molded bobbed hairdo young girls wore in the fifties. She is made by Holt Howard and has  a head for a Christmas angel, with a cone shaped cardboard body covered with red feathers, wire chenille covered arms, and a gilt songbook. Her features are painted and her hair is white. I still have her, but she is on a regular doll body with china limbs. She wears a red velvet medieval Barbie sized dress Mom sewed, and a black lace flower hat to conceal damage and cracks.My Aunt Rose gave her to me, and she also made in ceramics the second china head in my collection.This was a 24 in low brow, black glazed hair for Xmas 1968. The doll has china limbs, with high heeled painted black boots and garters. She is dressed in white silk damask with a white lace overskirt, and red ribbon trim. She wears a black velvet choker, as I did at the time, only where mine had a cameo, hers has a tear shaped agate. My mother knitted her a red shawl, and sewed a wardrobe of bright materials from Aunt Rose and my grandma. There is an antique flannel nightgown, underwear, dotted Swiss in red, red and blue polka dots, brown print and blue print with daisies and vintage flowers, a bright yellow daisy print, and a few hats and bonnets. All lived in a vinyl Barbie case!  The next dolls also 1968, was a replica, that would fool an exert. She wears a red leg o’ mutton dress and lingerie. Her molded shoes are white, high heeled, button down shoes. She is from The Tinkerbell Toy Shop in Disney. I have her receipt still. She cost $20.00 in 1968, a huge sum for dolls. She is a little thinner than Aunt Rose’s Doll, but can wear her clothes. I added for her a flannel jacket in green with removable felt symbols for each season. The China Sisters, Rose and Rosalie had many adventures, and are honored members of The Museum. Rosalie, from The Magic Kingdom, was meant to be another Xmas gift. When Mom saw the Rose doll, lying in its beautiful tissue lined box, she waited until Valentine’s Day 1969 to give her to me. I was ecstatic. She was a big sister to the dollhouse dolls, and could use their attic as a bed, where she could lie flat comfortably, if a little claustrophobically.

Mid century china and ceramic figures, I made the lavender doll, which also plays music, and
the blue glazed figure in the back.

My first antique “low brow” doll was five inches high, all cloth, with cloth arms and legs.Mom sewed her a yellow eyelet and batiste dress she still wears.My first large low brow with black hair was a name head, “Helen,” and I got her at 15.Many whole and fragmented “low brows” joined the collection, many doll house sized, some replicas I made from kits created for doll houses by my friend Violet Page

Early china head with vertical curls.  Author's Collection.  Purchased from
Nancy McCray

Artists rendition of a Marie Antoinette head with Dresden flowers. 
Author's Collection

Aunt Rose made me an  replica with red hair, a ribbon, and flat boots.She wore a green dress similar to Rose’s white one. Mrs. Brandmeyer of the 18th Avenue Doll Hospital assembled and dressed her Another small doll in the style of highland Mary never was glazed! I got impatient, and Mom and I made her a body and dress.Later, I found a Marie Antoinette,  Sherman Smith doll, and two other Smith dolls on wooden bodies, more Xmas Angels, including choirboys, in sizes from 3 inches to 9 There were more and more half dolls to explore, including some with Medieval headdress Eleanor St. George considered china heads though they were pincushion or half dolls.  My largest ceramic head is about 12 inches high with such a style, she is an artist head by my friend Violet, and she “nodded” forward in the kiln due to her weight. There are also Spanish china heads with wigs and painted features from Balos, and some from Capo di Monti and Marin, Italy and Spain.I learned of Rohmer dolls, with zinc bodies, and Huret dolls, with glass eyes and wigs. I added a Patty Jene artist doll of a china head with a wig. She was assembled with old limbs and clothes, and has re-1860 colored flat boots.

Alice type shard; author's collection

Low brow style head; public domain

Done in Parian style, Emma Clear's Pink Scarf Queen Louise, type.  Former Mary Merritt Doll
Museum.  Author's Collection.  Napoleon called the real Queen Louse his "beautiful enemy."

Artists head with Desden flowers.  Via Etsy. Author's colletion.

Vintage French type china head iwth glass eyes. Via Old Eclectics, but author's collection.

Beautiful large doll I found at Goodwill auctions; she has had some repair.  All original and about 30 inches.

He is not perfect, but is unusual.  Pink tinted frozen Charlie.

Vintage low brow next to a Flora Dora.

This little girl has a vintage china doll's face, but she is made of shells.
She comes from Delphi; home of The Oracle.  Our tour guide gave her to me
when I was there, age nine.

Blonde china, all original, sweet face.  Author's collection.

Vintage china and bisque heads, including one on the left from a Goebel mode.  Author's collection.

Unusual china fragment with molded hat.  Author's collection.  Via Ruby Lane.

Greek bottle doll that had Ouzo in it.  She represents Queen Amalia, first modern queen of Greece.
Author's collection.

Vintage male and female china heads via ebay.  Author's collection.

The grape lady, made from an Emma Clear mold.

Holt Howard china head angel.

Tiny, 5 inch all original Civil War China head.

Third from right, my first low brow, made by Aunt Rose, with assorted
antique and vintage dolls.

My rarest is a man’s head, with black hair, painted eyes, goatee and mustache. I think he may represent Napoleon III, husband of Eugenie, and I have an old head representing Eugenie herself.


There is a Victoria doll from Shackman, and several Jenny Linds, one by Emma Clear, on an antique. One small doll has a waterfall hairdo in a net. There are swivel necked chinas, and I have one in bisque from Japan with the curly lowbrow hairdo.I think these dolls are meant to have a Gibson girl type hair do with the rest of their hair pinned up in back.They are the most common and plentiful, and cost pennies. Many were made by Hertel and Schwab and Hertwig, and some were found intact after the Iron Curtain came down, in their original East German Factories.Shards of these and other bisque dolls that were thrown out are still buried in the soil and turn up from time to time. I have a box of them, sent from Germany, with the dirt in which they were buried still clinging to them.The box still has its German label.

Frozen Charlottes, courtesy Theriault's

Tours allow visitors to go the factory sites to scoop u as many shards as they can carry, or at least they did. There is a brisk trade in Etsy, eBay, and other online sites for these doll heads and shards.Artists use them for art dolls, found art, shadow boxes, and jewelry.I make pins from them, and I bought several Christmas ornaments form the Cincinnati Art Museum and other galleries this year. I also make barrettes.I have some doll heads that were buried, some in ancient privies!Sanitized these many years later, my mother and I made dolls from them.

Heads, Bussey collection.  See credits below.

China Heads Bussey Collection, Old Theshers, Mt. Prospect, IA. Photo by Author

Vintage Head, courtesy Jo Smith, Australia.

Ruth Gibbs made china heads under Godey’s Ladies Dolls trademark.I have several of the small six-inch versions, and one large 12-inch version with painted jewelry.Glass eye dolls, men, dolls with teeth and sleeping eyes, a super rare example owned by a friend with sleep eyes, china bonnet heads, all china Frozen Charlottes, dolls with fruit and flowers molded in their hair, these are the rarities of China heads. Limbach made many like this in bisque and china, including the bisque Irish Queen.  We have a couple vintage all china dolls, some made in the Motschmann style, and one perhaps by artist/author Helen Young. I have one china head that is a replica of a metal Minerva!

Vintage china low brow, a gift from my friend LJK, with other collectibles
and a sketch by my friend, Dan Johnson.

Early china head from estate of attorney Mabel Brown, who lived to be 99, and practiced law within
days of her death.  Glazed vintage bonnet head, lower left.  Spooky Halloween Frankie, lower right, Spirit of Halloween.
Our museum is nothing if not eclectic.

My mother, age 2, clutching a favorite doll.  I owe my collection to her and to my dad.

Emma Clear, of the legendary Humpty Dumpty Doll Hospital is credited with making the first “modern” china heads, now over 70 years old themselves. These are excellent dolls, and we have several, including the mold for her grape lady. We purchased the ink scarf doll from the Marry Merritt Museum and treasure her. She was an absentee bid, and the hammer came down online for us to our God Bless Noel Barrette auctions!

I have a china bonnet head, about six inches long, with brown eyes that I bought from noted authority Helen Draves. I also have a half doll with gray hear and brown eyes mom bought in about 1983 at a local doll show while I was still in law school.

There are china dolls from Tibet, in traditional costume, of blue and white china that looks delft.There are Japanese heads, very early, that look to some like the famous Nymhenberg, so called c china head which 18th c may now be an early twentieth century doll.

Author's Collection

Lowbrow dolls are featured in Disney’s’ film Child of Glass,  and Grace Ingalls allegedly had one, as did the mean Nellie Olesen. Other china heads are used as props in the TV show Little House on the Prairie. One of my Chinese heads has a molded tricorner hat; he represents a British soldier with blonde hair, but Asian features.He came from a store called “Z Best things in Life,” San Jose in the 80s.

Video I did

The jewel of my china head collection is a 29 inch pink tinted doll attributed to Rohmer.  Her maroon suit, boots, and hat are all original to her.  She has a kid body and is magnificent. I have a small, 14 inch artists doll that is vintage, and a vintage china head with glass eyes and wig.  I would love to have one of the very rare china heads with sleep eyes and wig, or the Laura Treskow doll featured in many books that has teeth.

Rare china head with teeth and glass eyes.  Former Laura Treskow collection.
Photo by author via Encyclopedia of Dolls, vol. I, Coleman.

Suzanne Gibson, NIADA, and The Virtual Doll Convention

Many artists turn to creating dolls because they are a fresh medium, something to take their art in another direction.  Artists who recognized the importance of the relationship between dolls and art founded the National Institute of American Doll Artists, NIADA, in 1963. Originally, four artists founded NIADA, Helen Bullard, Gertrude Florian, Magge Head, and Fawn Zeller. Today, there are over 60 members elected by their peers and member-patrons.  The purpose behind founding NIADA was to recognize the art behind original, hand made dolls.  Members hold annual get-togethers that include visiting doll makers and doll fans to share work and ideas with each other.  There is also a NIADA school for those who wish to learn doll making techniques from the artists of NIADA. The artists’ group also offers publications on artist dolls.  For more information about the annual conference and school, visit the NIADA website, www.niada.org.

 One of the Vinyl Kalico Kids, Tsagaris collection.

For many years, I was a pen pal of the late Suzanne Gibson, a NIADA artist known for her Kalico Kids and porcelain little girl series.   She was trained as a ballet dancer and was from Capitola, CA, not far from my family.  When I was nine my dad bought me one of the little girl dolls of porcelain from Knott’s Berry Farm.  The legend was that Gibson only made three dolls from each mold then broke it, though the dolls were clearly sisters.  They resembled each other closely.  My Dad used to say that his hand hurt from writing the check.  She is a lovely little girl with long lashes, long, strawberry blonde curls with pink ribbons, and a white eyelet dress and bloomers. Her shoes and stockings are also white.  There were other little girls, and Suzanne sent me a picture of one with dark curls and a pink dress.  She made vinyl dolls for several years with Reeves International, including a Mother Goose set in collaboration with Steiff.  The Kalico Kids were a departure, and based on her own childhood.  She sent me an autographed copy of her book about them at one point.

S. Gibson Holly by Reeves International via Public domain

When I went to a doll show, I would check on her dolls, if any.  I only found vinyl versions of the Kalico Kids and other dolls.   Currently, the Reeves dolls are a bargain on ebay.

Spinning Wheel's Complete Book of dolls features Gibson in an article; there is a great scion on doll artists in the book.  The NIADA sight is full of information, of course.  Many artists are past members of NIADA, and there are other groups, but notable artists include Debbie Ritter, Uneek Doll designs, R. John Wright, elinor peace bailey, Greg Ortiz and many BJD artists and designers. Glenda Rolle, featured in photos on this blog, does great sand babies and jewelry.

Teracotta doll bust by the author, c. 1988.

Spinning Wheel’s Complete Book of Dolls has a good article about her, and a good section on Doll artists.  Other books include Max von Boehn’s Dolls, Carl Fox’s The Doll,  Clara Hallard Fawcett’s books, Janet Pagter Johl’s and Eleanor St. George’s books that talk about Emma Clear, Helen Young’s The Complete Book of Doll Collecting, Edwina Ruggles’, The One Rose, Spinning Wheel’s Complete Book of Dolls, vol. I, Doll Reader Magazine, Doll Castle News, Kimport’s Doll Talk, Manfred Bachman’s Dolls, the Wide World Over, and Bernice’s Bambini.  Wonderful books by NIADA include   Krystyna Poray Goddu, ed., The Art of the Doll: Contemporary Work of the National Institute of American Doll Artists. NIADA, 1992, and other books by Goddu on the artists. NIADA serves many wonderful purposes in the world of dolls, but the artists remind us above all of the historical and artistic value of dolls for collectors and doll lovers of all ages.

R:  Dealer Laverne Koddy with a Jan McClean doll.

The author's Baby Dear, originally designed by Eloise Wilkin.
This version c. 1964,  and she wears a dress from her varied
wardrobe.  She is the author's favorite doll. 

Fairy with butterfly wings, artist made

Art doll by Joniak.

COD character doll, coinciding with movements in the Bauhaus Art
Movement and German Realism.

Older artists and designers include Joseph Kallus, Cameo Doll company and innovator of the modern vinyl Kewpie, Rose O' Neill, Grace Story Putnam, Grace Drayton, Grace Corey Rockwell, Johnny Gruelle, A. Marque, Picasso, Degas, Tony Sarg, and Bil Baird.

Other doll artists, some former NIADA members are Magge Head Kane, R. John Wright, Glenda Rolle [see her sand babies on this blog], R. Lane Herron, and Teri Long-Long Gone Dolls.  A. Marque and is an artist of the past that created dolls, as did DeWees Cochran, Madame Alexander, Dorothy Heizer and Emma Clear .  Peggy Jo Rosamund is an amazing paper doll artist.  Robin Woods did amazing work, and so did Anna Avigail Brahms.  The list goes on.

Bil Baird Puppet, photo the author

Dolls and art have gone hand in hand for centuries.  Even in prehistory, humans were creating small statues of women and an occasional man according to their standards of aesthetic beauty.  Artists used small articulated models or lay figures to create masterpieces of art.  A few artists like Marque, Picasso, and Degas,  either created dolls, or were inspired by dolls to create other works of art.  Many great artists, including Rembrandt, were collectors themselves. Leonardo da Vinci dabbled in creating automatons, along with other gadgets and machines.  Artists like Joseph Cornell and Jarvis Rockwell created works of art using dolls.  Norman Rockwell, father to Jarvis, painted them, as in his Doctor and Doll. The artistry of antique dolls influenced Pleasant Rowland’s American Girls.  Of course, sculptors and artists have always been involved in creating dolls for play and to collect. There are many non-NIADA books and magazines  about doll making including The Art Doll Quarterly.   Behind every Barbie, Kewpie, or Betsy Wetsy, there is an artist or sculptor working his or her particular doll magic.

Artist doll after the work of Ted de Grazia.  Author's collection.

Other great books abound on dolls and art, as well as videos of the Santa Fe Doll Art conventions. Just remember, behind every great doll, there is a great artist!  We will be featuring Helen Kish, George Stuart, Shelley Thornton and more at the June Virtual Doll Convention.

Pat Thompson, Vlasta Dolls. Author's Collection

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