

There are four pages of clothing in the set, but I only have some rough images of two of the four (below).
The usual apologies for my absence lately. I hope to maybe post something new of my own soon.
19th Century Paper Dolls |
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![]() Reap the Wild Wind was an 1942 action flick starring Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard (with a young John Wayne and Susan Hayward!). It's basically a romance about Clipper salvage in Key West the 1840s (an interesting and unusual subject!). In 1973, Marilyn Henry created this lovely paper doll set based on the film. I came across this on eBay and would love to bid on it, but I am sure it will go too dear for what I would be willing to pay. It's a nice set of the sort that you could color yourself (color printing was just too expensive 40 years ago unless you were a big publisher). It nonetheless has a spot color cover (presumably heavier stock), so the characters have some tints. ![]() My absolute favorite is the inclusion of the octopus (definitely a stand-out character in the film). The film, of course is rather silly and the costumes are not especially period-appropriate (this was a low-budget film made during WWII, which adds to its overall "cheap" look and feel ~ but hey, they did pretty good with what they had! There are four pages of clothing in the set, but I only have some rough images of two of the four (below). The usual apologies for my absence lately. I hope to maybe post something new of my own soon. Today a gorgeous young Victorian woman from 1885 by contemporary artist Helen Page. You can download this doll and several other beauties at Helen's website.
![]() 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. ![]() No matter what I draw, I find the influence of Tom Tierney in all of my paper doll work ~ probably because I learned a lot about how to think about paper dolls from cutting out his characters and spent a good deal of time studying anatomy from his paper doll postures. And while Tom Tierney is a past master in the paper doll world, I am kind of disappointed that my own style is not very original. I'm in good company, of course: I see Tierney's influence in a lot of original paper dolls on the internet. Perhaps what ultimately distinguishes one artist from another will be in the design of the clothes, the expressions and stories of the characters, and the handling of whatever medium in which the artwork is created. I have made no decisions about these two on the right. The last two dolls I created (two weeks ago), I completely ruined by attempting a new medium. I haven't decided whether to play it safe with these, but I want to get them out of the pencil stage before the day is over and hopefully posted properly by the end of the weekend. Don't mind the hot cocoa stains on the art, there. The dog wanted to share out of my cup. Silly thing. Looking back through this blog to its beginnings, I realize I have gone through a lot of drafts and a lot of reboots on these dolls, looking for the right set (what a lot of work!). Sadly, I was never happy with any of the sets I posted (even though it seems to me that some of them were actually kind of cool). But something seemed missing, I guess, so I just continued to make dolls. I am definitely done with that rut. No more remakes, reboots, or starting over. I feel like I've learned a lot from creating those other dolls (over and over) and now's the time to settle down and get to work. Time's a'wasting, after all! Today is our first snow day of the season, so naturally I have all this crazy energy (yay snow!). Let's hope it leads to good things. Also, it's Edwin Booth's birthday, so please visit the paper doll I made of him a while back and wish him well (though he's been dead for over 100 years). ![]() 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. ![]() That said, it's been a very bad year for me; my internet connection is patchy at best, and I've not had the creative energy to do anything interesting in a long long looooong while. The good news is that with the onset of Autumn and Winter, I am hoping very much to be back in the mood. I'll be starting fresh, just so you know, so there may be posts from the past that I'll remove the tags or remove entirely. This Weebly site was easy to put up, but it doesn't give me as much control over managing the content as I would like. To that end, I may end up moving this site to my own server where I can redesign it as I please. That's a big change, though, so don't expect it to happen overnight. I want to get back into some sort of regular posting before I throw a curve like that into the mix. Excuses over, I don't have anything new to post right at the moment, so I want to share with you another great paper doll blogger's post at Marges8's! The above image is from a doll by Peggy Jo Rosamond (the link will take you to an additional page of outfits), and the blog features many others, so go visit it and enjoy! Anyway, the game plan for the coming week is to start posting with some regularity again; if only just once a week (I can do that much, can't I?). Thanks for hanging in with me if any of you are still out there. ![]() 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. ![]() I am reminded that one of the reasons I began this blog was to sort of catalog the collection of paper dolls of the 19th Century that I have acquired over the years. I've been so distracted working on other stuff, I've hardly talked about the wonderful books available out there at all! Today I offer a glimpse of Norma Lu Meehan's Victorian Paper Doll Wardrobe. I think this one is out of print, but you can find it on eBay and the like. Meehan's work is amazing on a lot of levels: she works from actual gowns from actual historical collections, which makes the amount of detail incredible. This particular set of dresses is from the Northern Indiana Historical Society. In the book there are three dolls and 12 dresses ranging from the 1860s to the 1890s (with an emphasis on the 90s ~ but a nice range of styles of that decade). The one I've posted here is from 1887 and was worn to a wedding reception (click the picture to see more details). ![]() That's the other great thing about Meehan's books: the notes are fabulous, often telling who owned the dress, where it was worn (and why), and providing other detail about the type of material, accessories, etc. Meehan has a number of books, all equally detailed (and just recently published a new book of 19th century wedding fashions ~ which I hope to acquire soon). I have several of her other books and will share reviews on them also. And while I'm posting, I just want to say that I realize I am slow at posting new material of my own and hope to remedy that. On Halloween, I'll be launching a second blog with a project I have been working on (and which will be updating more quickly doll-wise that this one). Stay tuned! ![]() I really have no excuse for not posting more work and more often here. It's not like making paper dolls is ever very far from my mind. Unfortunately, I have been so distracted with other things (like getting Reconstruction) up and running. I guess that's a good thing for my other website, but not so good for this poor neglected blog. I am trying to turn a new leaf, however, and am committing myself to looking at the dolls I have waiting to dress and will be working on them this weekend. I'm not sure entirely what it will amount to, but I promise I will produce something just to get things rolling again. In the meantime, enjoy this Edgar Allen Poe cut out set from Lisa Perrin, who has such an interesting and delightful style. Poe's bunny slippers are not exactly period, but they're hilarious!There are other articulated paper dolls on her blog and a lot of other fun illustrations as well, many with a historical/antiquey bent. Beautiful and enviable work! |
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