These interesting assemblies are a strange lot. Definitely a lost plaything of the past.
In honor of the holidays, we have this appropriately dated November 24th, 1895 art supplement to the Boston Sunday Globe, which printed a lot of fun cut-outs and paper dolls at the turn of the century and into the next. This one is interesting as it shows a traditional family: mother, father, son, and daughter, all sitting down to their holiday meal.
These interesting assemblies are a strange lot. Definitely a lost plaything of the past.
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I meant to post a nice fashion plate yesterday for Fashion Plate Friday (was hoping to get that going again), but yesterday turned out to be rather busy, so I blew it. But I won't let the weekend go without posting something (because, surprise surprise, I am still working on the dolls and don't know when I will finish ~ and don't want to make any more promises that I can't keep! But anyway, I still missed Fashion Plate Friday, so I present you, instead, an antique paper doll from a series recently selling on eBay (a.k.a. the devil). The seller of these dolls has been posting them one at a time and each has been selling for upwards of $150-$200. I can see why for the real collector: they are absolutely gorgeous. Pysche was a popular French ladies' magazine and produced quite a few paper dolls during the 1830s and 1840s. If you look at posts under the category Antique, you may find others. One of the characteristics of many Victorian paper dolls is that they were double-sided. Or rather, they were built to be viewed from the front and the back. This required a level of artistry on the illustrators and it also required careful assembly on the part of those who cut them out and played with them. The double-sided image was important to girls and dressmakers throughout the century: fashions were made to be as equally pleasing from the back as they were from the front. This was especially true of the bustle era. For this doll, the hat is a separate two-sided article as well. Click on the image below to see a little bit better detail. Although there are a number of these dolls that have been posted for sale, I chose this one because it's a very cold morning (about 20 degrees), and the winter ermine looks nice and cozy. Also, the date of the doll and the current date were nicely close. What's this? Another post so soon? Could it be a sign of the apocalypse? No, it's just Veteran's Day and I couldn't let it pass without posting something patriotic. This is a Under the Stars and Stripes paper doll set from about the turn of the century by Raphael Tuck featuring a patriotic theme (including an Uncle Sam outfit!). The others are uniforms for cavalry, infantry, and the navy. These uniforms are all in the style of what was pretty common by the end of the 19th century (American soldiers still wore blue), and the navy uniform in particular hadn't changed since the early part of the century. Although the doll is a bit stiff (being at attention), this is a nice set and was auctioned off last year some time at Morphy's. I had downloaded so many interesting vintage paper dolls from that auction and have scarcely begun to post them! Anyway, the resolution on these isn't the greatest, but they are nevertheless nice to look at. I have very few of these sticker-type paper dolls. I generally don't find them very interesting subject-wise, and don't really like the idea of stickers for clothing since you can't really gather the wardrobe in a pile and luxuriate at all the colors and shapes ~ which I think is one of the great appeals of playing with paper dolls. Nevertheless, occasionally a sticker doll comes along that I absolutely must have for my collection, and it seems like artist A.G. Smith is the one to make them. This little Abraham Lincoln is fabulously simple and nicely researched. As an added bonus, Smith has included a pair of hands wielding an axe. Of course, this is intended to represent Lincoln as the "rail-splitter" of his youth, but I think it doubles nicely in case you want to play Abraham Lincoln, Vampire-Hunter as well. In case you have never seen the above book, be sure to look at the image of the back cover, though if you're sensitive to bloodshed, you might want to skip it. Because this is a Dover "Little" activity book, it's nicely inexpensive and fun for all ages (vampires or no). This is one of several Lincoln paper dolls I have to share with you and it being ten days until the anniversary of the Gettysburg address, it seems now's a good time to do so. It strikes me peculiar, however, that such an unlikely subject would have so many paper dolls modeled after him. Not that I am complaining. While wandering around the internet, I stumbled across the following Japanese fashion prints (circa 1888), depicting the empress of Japan in western clothing. The artist is Yoshitoshi, who is considered the last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition. These prints were made at the height of Japan's new "westernization". The emperor and empress encouraged the adoption of western clothing and customs as part of modernizing Japan and breaking from centuries-old feudal customs. It was a tough period for Japan and you can read a little more about what it meant to Japanese women at the source where I found these images: Lina's Lookbook. Perhaps needless to say, the prints are absolutely beautiful (the colors are amazing!). When compared to cheap American prints of the same era, the difference is astounding. But then again, "cheap" American kind of sums up the reason there. I was looking at images of 19th century Japan mostly out of curiosity; I am watching Shogun (which takes place in the 1600s), but so much of the Japanese style did not change until the 19th century, so I was interested in how constant the clothing had been over the centuries in many ways. When you look at how diverse western clothing is from century to century, this constancy is particularly striking. And yes, I am sort of playing with the idea of making a paper doll based on the character of John Blackthorn in Shogun, but it's kind of out the era I'd prefer working in, so it was just an idle thought and a few sketches on an energy bill that happened to be handy for scrawling. Nevertheless, I do have two Japanese characters who I could draw belonging to the "proper" era represented in this blog. Eventually. Meanwhile, click on the pictures above to see more detail. |
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