Today’s offering comes from Eclectibles.com, a very cool online market with lots of funky Victorian ephemera.  This particular piece is listed as “Uncut Paper Doll Sheet, Neue Ankleidefiguren, with 4 Paper Dolls with Costumes & Room Settings 1880s”. 

The description from the website reads:

A 13 ½ x 17” color paper doll sheet titled Neue Ankleidefiguren (New Dressing Figures) No. 1198 with four (4) different paper dolls the costumes and accessories.  Includes two young women, each approx. 5 ½” high, each with two costumes, hats and furniture accessories.  The third is a bid more matronly and perhaps a maid, as she has various serving items associated with her costumes.  The final is an infant or baby with three costumes an bundle, hats, a rattle and a bassinet.  Paper age toned with board chips.  Fragile.

The lot is currently selling for $90.

These are lovely in their simplicity and variety (and all the lovely little props). Some of the nicest Victorian paper dolls I've seen have been produced by European printers. The subjects seem generally more sophisticated (possibly due to the popularity of royal personages) compared to most American paper dolls of the same era, which tended to represent children and storybook characters.

As always, click on the images to see them at their best.

I may share a number of items from this website as it contains a good number of pieces that I have not seen elsewhere around the web. It’s always cool to come upon new stuff!

Here are a couple of "nostalgic" Victorian children enjoying some winter holiday fun. I figured they would be appropriate as winter has hit bottom and thinking back to the holiday part of it seems like a good idea ~ it's either that or the coming of Spring, which I am never personally anxious for.

The artist on these is Carol Endler Sterbenz and the doll's names are Emily and Jonathan. I especially like the little details on the doll stands (holly and ivy) and the added touch of the gilded pair of scissors on the second page (to fill in some unused space.

The little cat is also kind of cute.

It's not really possible to assign these dolls a particular decade. They are kind of "generic" Victorian and could really come from just about any time during the 19th century. Since the girl's dress is covered by a coat that could have been in style from 1840-1900, further details are wanting. The boy's frilly suit, too, was in and out of vogue for most of the century.

At any rate, they are a nice pair, lovingly executed and fun to share on a Fashion Plate Friday (in lieu of an actual Fashion Plate, since I haven't posted any actual paper dolls in a some time ~ yikes).

You can find large-size (more printable) versions of these dolls at the Mostly Paper Dolls blog. They were originally printed in FIRST magazine, in 1989.

The temperatures continue at a low (we didn't get that crazy storm from this past week, but it's been cold cold cold). And so my internet is still dead dead dead. It's supposed to kick up twenty or so degrees this weekend, so maybe my service will resume and I can get back to more regular posting (there's always something, isn't there?).

In the meantime, here is something quick and fun for Fashion Plate Friday: an engraving of a Victorian bat costume from 1887. Halloween not being a solidly established tradition at this time, it was probably designed for a masquerade or possibly even some theatrical, but it's rather cool either way.  There's something especially appealing about the way 19th century costumes were constructed: everything was hand made and generally one-of-a-kind since such things were not mass-produced.

If you had the skill and the resources, what kind of costume would you design for yourself?