Costume doll
Category
Dolls
Date
circa 1950 - circa 1976
Materials
Fabric doll
Measurements
220 mm (height)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 658968
Summary
A mid-20th century costume doll (also known as souvenir, world costume, tourist and foreign travel doll) representing a woman from China. The doll has a stuffed fabric-covered face with moulded and painted facial features and jointed fabric-covered wire arms. Mounted on a round wooden base. The black hair dressed in two side buns each fastened with red braid. The doll wears pearl earrings, a long-sleeved embroidered white blouse, a tunic of orange rayon with blue embroidery, a blue embroidered belt, a long white skirt with blue embroidery. The skirt is attached to the base. The doll holds in her right hand a stick from which suspends a multifaceted lantern of metal and plastic with brown tassels and green beads. Costume dolls representing people of different nationalities in their local dress have been made since the mid-19th century. As global travel expanded ‘world’ dolls were produced as tourist souvenirs as well as children’s toys. They appear in a variety of media, from paper to porcelain, polymer to plastic. Produced to be instantly recognisable and collectible, ‘world’ dolls can portray a stereotypical view of peoples and cultural identities.
Provenance
One doll from a collection of costume dolls donated by Mr R.T. Macfarlane in 1976.