Today I am sharing a beautiful fashion plate from Union Magazine, April 1849. The inclusion of the man in this image is lovely since around about the 1860s men sort of drop out of the fashion plate world in women's magazines. Later they emerge again in their own books, but the ladies magazines will be inclined to focus on women and sometimes children more exclusively.

I don't know much about Union Magazine specifically. There were many flash in the pan publications around this era when publishers realized that ~ wow ~ based on the success of Godey's, it was apparent that women liked to read! And so the market was full of magazines to appeal to women mostly of a privileged class, though cheaper books were likewise produced in an attempt to appeal to women of lower means as well. The glut would eventually lead to a magazine Darwinism, with the strong rising to the top and the weaker falling away. Godey's would likewise continue to dominate despite competition from Demorest's magazine, and would only eventually succomb to the popular format of Harper's Bazaar.

Fritzi Scheff was an American actress and singer who was popular in the early 20th century, though I have included her here because she was working by the turn of the century and her outfits are certainly reminiscent of the end of the Belle Epoque. This single page was done by John Axe and sports one of his nicer female dolls (click the image to see more details).

I admit I have not been working on my own 19th Century dolls for a while here as I reorganize my workspace and get things in order. But in case you missed it, I am regularly updating my other paper doll blog: Comic Book Chronicles.

I am hoping to post new stuff here soon enough, but in the mean time I hope you are enjoying seeing some of the stuff in my collection.

Maurice Barrymore was one of the great actors of the late 19th century (and the father of an acting dynasty that continues today).

19th century actors are a lot of fun because stage costumes back then were so fanciful (and often even ridiculous).

This is one of a handful of John Axe dolls I have in my collection. While I often enjoy Axe's subjects, his dolls are of mixed success for me. I think his faces in particular are not very attractive, unfortunately. In the case of this set of dolls, for example, the first one is good, but the second one looks a little strange, especially when you consider that Maurice Barrymore was quite handsome. Still, it's a nice small set and I enjoy having it as part of my collection.  Click on the image to see the art in much better detail!

Also, click here to see the original costume of "Orlando" represented above.

This is a recent and unusual acquisition of mine, produced in 1985 by Press Pacifica in Hawaii, the dolls were designed by Cassandra Land-Nellist, and carefully researched from photo archives.

King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma (later called Kaleleonalani), enjoyed a very short reign in Hawaii, from 1856 to 1863, and were loved because of their care and concern for improving the lives of their people.

You can read more about them here and here. They look like such a beautiful couple and seemed to have been very happy in their very brief time together.

This collection includes 14 pages of lovely period clothing including their wedding attire (at left), fancy formal wear, casual wear, and the queen's wardrobe following the death of her husband (including her mourning gown).

This is one of those lovely sets that I would really enjoy cutting, but since I've never seen it anywhere else, I'm going to keep it intact. The paper it is printed on is likewise lovely: textured and thick. The colors are absolutely vibrant. I acquired this off of that evil place known as eBay for a very reasonable price (it seemed).