A Body Pattern for Antique Papier Mache and China Shoulderhead Dolls

I designed and sized a body for this head made by Dixie.  The pattern offered is suitable for many types of antique shoulder head dolls made of china and papier mache.  It may be sized up or down on a copier to fit a particular head. As given, the body makes about a 22 inch doll.  If you do not already have a favorite basic body pattern for shoulder heads I hope this will become it. The pattern is available at https://www.etsy.com/listing/1381050145/edyth-oneill-doll-body-pattern-for-china?click_key=e2623e36d1fcb4b83df79374c970880b508712da%3A1381050145&click_sum=d0f5ccf8&ref=shop_home_active_1

There are seven pages in this downloadable pdf document. When printing it from your computer you might like to print pages 1,6 and 7 on photo paper and the other pages on plain.  Make several copies of pages 3 and 4 with the pattern shapes and enlarge or reduce these as desired for different dolls.   Both a full figured and a more slender torso are given.  It is easy to customize the pattern for your own projects. Thanks, Edyth

http://www.dollsformyredcape.blogspot.com/p/patterns-ebooks.html

The Story of the Maggie Bessie Doll

Written by Bradley Justice

Purchase the Maggie Bessie Pattern on Etsy

In the corner of metropolitan Winston Salem, North Carolina is a tiny historic village, named Old Salem.  Many years ago, in this village lived two sisters who were avid doll makers.  Both were talented seamstresses, both endeared to children and a love of dolls.   This is the story of an American doll created in my home state, a North Carolina Cloth doll. Salem was settled in 1766 by Moravians who cam from Pennsylvania as missionaries to the backwoods of North Carolina in 1753.  After starting two small villages, they felt the need of a center for their industries.   Salem merged with Winston in 1913, the hub of tobacco factories, and is now known as the city of Winston Salem.   The older village of Salem has become a tourist attraction, similar to that of Williamsburg, and is called Old Salem Inc. At one time they had a vast Toy Museum, which just recently closed.  This museum had well over 20 Maggie Bessie dolls both on exhibit and in their archive.   

Margaret Gertrude Pfohl (Maggie), 1877-1965, and Caroline Elizabeth Pfohl (Bessie) 1870-1959, were Moravians in Salem.  

 

The Pfohl sisters were never married but were very active in their community and their church.  This is apparent in the many projects that the started to create items for entertaining children.   They taught sewing, painted china, and Miss Maggie started the tradition of the first “Putz” or scene, under the community Christmas tree at the Home Moravian Church.  This is a tradition that continues to this day.   A “Putz” is a German tradition brought by the Moravians to their settlements.  Relatives of the Pfohl sisters regale the memories of this tradition, are quick to share stories of visiting their home during the Advent season.

Starting in the early 1890’s, Miss Maggie and Miss Bessie redrafted a pattern belonging to their mother to create some of their first dolls.   This pattern had been utilized by Mrs. Pfohl to make dolls for her children.   Mrs. Pfohl (Margaret Caroline Siewers Pfohl 1838-1929) was herself very artistic and understood the importance of dolls to children. This pattern proved far too simple for their tastes.  The dolls purportedly made by Mrs. Pfohl are very rare and differ greatly from those we now call the Maggie Bessie Dolls.  They are flatter with a gusset at the top of the head, and the face painting, although well done, is more primitive.   Few of these dolls exist, and it is difficult to say with certainty their provenance.  They enlisted a dear friend, Elizabeth (Emma Louisa) Chitty, and she helped the sisters refine their pattern and improve their techniques.  She was an instructor of needlework and mathematics at Salem Academy and College with whom Miss Maggie had studied.  A doll maker herself, she is the creator of the elusive cloth doll known as “Miss Chitty”.  Joining forces to perfect these early dolls became a group effort.  The final result was the pattern for a doll that would measure 19 inches.   From that pattern, utilizing similar shapes, they sized down, and worked at creating a manageable standard pattern.   This started a tradition that lasted for over fifty years.


The late Catherine (Catty) White was the first to speak of these dolls to me.  When Catty, a well known doll dealer at the time, told me that these were her favorite dolls I became intrigued immediately.  She was instrumental in bringing more knowledge of these dolls to all those interested.   Catty worked with an antique dealer who called her each time he found a Maggie Bessie doll.  The dolls, apparently simple in construction, are charming and have a wonderful feel of Americana.  Catty was generous in sharing her knowledge about them although there were few articles about them and no reference in the Blue Book.  In our conversations, Catty referred several times to a friend Elizabeth (Libby) Holder, a Moravian from Winston Salem now living in a retirement Community in my Town of Chapel Hill.  It was only a matter of time before our paths as doll collectors crossed and confessed a mutual affection for the Maggie Bessie dolls.


Libby owns three of them, especially made for her by the Pfohl sisters.  Libby was a newspaper reporter for the Winston Salem Journal and the Twin City Sentinel in Winston Salem.  She was a Bride to be when she interviewed the Pfohl sisters shortly before Christmas 1942 about their doll making for an article.   She tried to order a doll for herself at the time, but after some obvious hesitation, they refused to accept her request, saying they were so filled with Christmas orders they could not do any more.  On Christmas morning, however, Libby found a Maggie Bessie doll had been left for her by Santa Claus.  A few days latter Miss Maggie called Elizabeth, saying that they doll had been order by her new husband and they were trying to protect his surprise when they turned down her request.   She was told that they would be happy to make her another doll is she wanted one.   After much consultation Libby settled on a boy and girl doll.  The Christmas doll is dressed in a style from the early 1800’s.  The two later dolls that Libby bought were dressed in styles from the early 1900’s.  Named by the sisters, Kate is wearing a pink dress with bonnet.  Will, also named by the makers, is wearing blue button on shorts, white shirt, socks and a crocheted bowler style hat.   Both dolls wear inexpensive store bought oil cloth shoes.  They told Libby they used these to keep the prices of the dolls affordable for children.

Libby clarified for me several items in the construction and production of the dolls.   Each sister did her share of the sewing.  Miss Maggie did most of the painting of faces which were primed with white house paint, then sanded with emery before the features were added in oils.  The faces are gentle, sweet and very consistent.   

 

For girls, the painted hair is parted in the middle, for boys on the side.  Dolls have been found with and without painted ears.  The girls have blue eyes, the boys have brown eyes.    Each part of the doll is constructed separately and joined together (i.e. the upper arms is separate from the lower arm).   

Although I have stated that the dolls are simple, closer inspection of the construction testifies that the pattern is quite complex.  Several pattern pieces were used in the head and a series of darts give shape. There is a center seam in the back and on the front a dart creates the chin and forehead.  The dolls are tightly stuffed with cotton batting, and a wooden dowel creates the “spine”.  Without the spine, the sisters said, the dolls would nod.  

There are three documented patterns for three sizes: These are documented as 1 small, 13-14 inches, 2 large, 17-18 inches, and 3 “great big” 20-22 inches.   Improvements were made to the pattern whenever needed.  The size 1 dolls have 3 pattern pieces for the head.  The larges sizes have 5 pattern pieces, though early examples in this size have been found with 3 pattern pieces.  This documents their evolution and desire to improve their creations.

Dolls were dressed in simple dresses usually in pink or blue cotton. 

 

 Some have been found in gingham and calico prints.   

 

Girls wear a petticoat over one piece undergarments.  The dresses vary but the typical style is a short sleeve dress pleated in front with a low belt round the waist.  As with Libby’s first doll, she was dressed in an early 1800’s fashion with full skirt, pantalettes, and the traditional Moravian “Haube”, a prayer cap worn by all Moravian women to church.  The haube, are sometimes made of a stiff crinoline or lawn fits close to the scalp and have rows of pleated crinoline around the crown and tied under the chin with a ribbon.  The color of the ribbon designated the marital status of the person wearing it.  Girls under the age of confirmation wore red ribbons, unmarried women wore pink, married women wore blue and widows wore white.

The dolls originally sold for $1.00 each but by 1942 when Libby bought her two dolls, the price was up to $6.50.  The sisters had decided early in their career to try to keep prices down so no child would have to go without.  

The dolls they created are by far the best known creations, but they also made other playthings as well, sock toys and stocking dolls, organdy bonnets for dolls with hand painted flowers and they were known to have dabbled in doll repair.  A Maggie Bessie doll head and arms has been found on a German Kid leather body.   The bisque head of this doll met an untimely fate, and was replaced by the sisters with a head of their own creation.

Maggie Bessie dolls were treasured by their owners and have been passed down from generation to generation.  Speculation is that there were fewer than 500 of these dolls made, though and early article gives a much lower number.  Production of these dolls began in the early 1890’s, the earliest entry in the sisters’ business journal being 1897.  This journal, a simple composition book, documents 435 dolls made from 1897 through 1918. It contradicts an early speculation that the sisters only produced 130 dolls.   Most of the dolls were made for local people of Salem; the names appearing in this journal are names active in the Moravian community. Records also show that they shipped to Colorado, Texas, New Jersey, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.
 

After the death of the both sisters, the importance of these dolls was soon discovered.   Collectors of both dolls, ephemera of Old Salem, and Americana all compete for Maggie Bessie dolls when they rarely are offered for Sale. What I have discovered was that so many of these dolls were loved to pieces and have since vanished from the face of the earth, but memories still live in the hearts of many, while others are coveted family heirlooms that are passed on to eldest daughters. The dolls that Libby received in 1942 went on to be played with, not only by her daughter, but by her grandchildren as well.

The nostalgia and memories of these special dolls created a demand for similar dolls to be sold in the gift shops of Old Salem where they now offer an inexpensive inspired version of the Maggie Bessie dolls.

The quest for information and history of these dolls became a passion for me and I think I am more passionate now about the history of the sisters, their techniques, and their doll making than I am of the dolls themselves.  I have had the pleasure to see well over 100 examples of these dolls and photograph them extensively.  Many owners allowed me to undress the dolls to study the clothing, varying construction and painting of each doll.  As I began this research I was able to speak to several people that were related to, or had known the Pfohl Sisters and get first hand accounts of their doll making.   As time has marched on, sadly, many have now passed away. Libby Holder passed away in October of 2009 reminding me that a history unwritten is lost forever.   Sad, but it is very true. I feel privileged that I was able to work with her on my research.  Even though Maggie and Bessie have passed on their dolls continue to bring joy to collectors in North Carolina and the world.   

About My Pattern

As I said previously I was able to view many examples of these dolls, measuring them, sketching, studying and photographing each one.  I share many of (but not all) of my photographs on my Flickr photo site. (Some do not want images of their dolls shared publicly, so I have them for research and when I do programs on the dolls) This is a great way to see variations, facial panting, and details.   I spent many hours creating from my sketches and measurements a pattern to make myself a Maggie Bessie doll.  My first attempts were marginal at best, as each creation lacked some detail that the originals possessed.   In 2007 when I was allowed to see the original patterns, I was able to see many subtle details in the patterns that fixed many of the “issues”. 

 I redrafted a corrected pattern, and my example is as near to the original as you could possibly get.  As I make the dolls on occasion for friends and family, I try to stay as close to original techniques as possible utilizing the same materials, stuffing and techniques, I prefer to be as authentic as possible.   I even use a red marking pencil, as the sisters did, when they transferred their pattern to the fabric.  Details however minute are important to me.    The pattern that I offer for sale is years in the making, much trial and error, and was a total labor in love to preserve the doll making techniques from my home state of North Carolina, and the dolls loved by my dearest friends.   I hope that you will enjoy making your doll.

 Bradley's Etsy Shop
All content and pictures in this post are copyright 2011 Bradley Justice

Be Inspired by Izannah Walker Doll John Thayer

 Let's be inspired by the wonderful John Thayer! 

Let's have a dollmaking challenge! 

Target date for finishing February 28, 2023

Some images of John Thayer are here: 

https://www.izannahwalkerchronicles.com/2022/08/john-thayer-antique-izannah-walker-boy.html

Some antique photos of 19th century boys are here in a Pinterest board: 

https://pin.it/1BayhHO

We will call them "cousin" dolls to give leeway in design and execution. You do not have to make a copy of John Thayer, but your doll should be a boy and include *some* elements found in John Thayer.  Feel free to use an Izannah Walker doll pattern OR another antique inspired pattern to make a boy doll that is related.  I've already been coming up with a "cousin" name 😉

Izannah Walker Reproduction Dolls

original Izannah Walker doll, picture by Dixie Redmond

“Will I still be making Izannah Walker inspired dolls?”

NOTE: The answer is YES. This post has been updated to reflect my journey in making Izannah Walker Reproduction Dolls and my establishment of the Hopestill Clan, pressed cloth izannah Walker dolls made from a mold I made of my antique Izannah Walker doll Hope. If you'd like to know more, please visit Northdixie Designs, the blog written by me, Dixie Redmond.

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This question is asked in light of artist Kathy Patterson making a mold of her original Izannah Walker doll and using the mold to make reproduction Izannah Walker dolls.

Yes, I will still be making Izannah Walker inspired dolls, for many reasons. Before I get to all the whys of that I'd like to talk a bit about being inspired and the recent history of artists making Izannah inspired works.

 

 Helen Pringle doll picture courtesy of Deanna Hogan

There is something to be learned from studying Izannah's work, just as painters learn by copying the works of artists who came before them such as Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Monet. In the act of trying to make a creation like those who come before, we learn something. Doll makers who have quoted Izannah Walker in their work include Martha Chase, Helen Pringle, Edyth O'Neill, and Judy Tasch a decade or more ago.

 

 Edyth O'Neill Doll, sculpted by Edyth

 

 Martha Chase doll Martha was inspired by her childhood doll made by Izannah Walker. 

 picture courtesy of Deanna Hogan

These artists have elements of Izannah's techniques or painting styles in their work. Many of us have more recently made Izannah inspired or Izannah reproduction dolls. I won't try to name all of us who have made Izannah inspired dolls because we are quite a throng. Some really wonderful dolls have come about as a result of trying to understand and emulate Izannah's work.  

 

 Judie Tausch dolls, Doll Reader photograph

Methods of approaching an Izannah Walker inspired doll have included making all cloth oil painted dolls, photo face dolls which have a photo print of an Izannah doll on a cloth base, dolls with stiffened masks, dolls made with paperclay, dolls made with paperclay and a stockinette cover, and now using a direct mold of an Izannah Walker doll. All of the attempts have been at the least interesting and at the most marvelous. As artists have made dolls, some have wanted to make a doll which looks exactly like an Izannah doll, and others have been more interested in using Izannah's exact methods. All of the works up till now will fall somewhere on the continuum of being an exact copy of the original to being inspired by the original.

 

Exact Copy of Original ----------------- Inspired by Original

Making copies of old dolls is nothing new. If the artist is up front and not trying to pass off the work as an antique original, it's quite legitimate in the doll-making world. When I emailed Edyth O'Neill this article for her thoughts she replied,

“Thousands of molds have been taken off old china and bisque dolls and some papier mache's too. When anything becomes really valuable it is a target to reproduce, anything from rocking horses to quilts to pressed glass. Dolls are surely no exception! Reproduction Izannah dolls fill the same need as do the reproduction Bisque A T's or the Reproduction Bru's. Collectors who would love to have an original Izannah Walker doll but feel they cannot afford one, may opt to purchase one of these reproduction ones instead. Emma Clear used to make molds from the old dolls as well as from her own sculpts. Mildred Seeley built a whole business on selling supplies and molds for reproduction dolls. “

Izannah herself used molds and we don't know what the original molds were made from – her own sculpt, another artist's sculpt or perhaps an early antique doll she owned? Elaine McNally commented that using a direct mold of an original Izannah doll is a 3D version of those who have made “photo-face” dolls. While Kathy Patterson's Izannah heads are molded from the original Izannah Walker dolls, she paints the molded heads herself. The end result is a doll that closely resembles the originals. No doubt about it, this does raise the bar for artists trying to make a doll which looks like an Izannah doll. So now I come back to the question of “Will I still be making Izannah Walker inspired dolls?” Of course I will, just as I always have done since beginning doll making. And here are my reasons why:

1. I find pleasure in making an Izannah Walker inspired doll. My purpose in making an Izannah inspired doll isn't only to make a likeness of one, but to think about the character of the doll maker. Izannah Walker is a kind of icon for me, because I see her as woman who achieved a lot of things in an environment that wasn't a level playing field for women. This inspires me. 

2. I personally still have something to learn in the making of an Izannah Walker inspired doll. I sculpt my dolls by hand, and part of the challenge for me is to see how closely I can get to the feeling of the original Izannahs in my own sculpt. I've learned a lot through attempting this. 

3. I believe there is room for different kinds of art in this world, including different kinds of Izannah Walker inspired dolls. It's like hearing the same song sung by different singers. Many versions can be beautiful.

Fairchildren and the Creative Spirit of Helen Pringle

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This is a repost from a blog post in 2014. Sadly, Helen passed away last year. But I am so glad that I was able to do this email interview. 

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Not long ago, I (Dixie) was lucky to purchase a Helen Pringle doll to add to my study collection for a while.  Most doll groups that focus on making vintage and antique dolls will eventually discuss Helen Pringle’s work. Her creations have the appeal of antique dolls, something many of us try to capture. Helen’s work is highly collectible for those who love cloth dolls.

In studying this doll, I had the chance to ask Helen some questions about the doll Sethany Fairchild (pictured) and her other artistic creations. She graciously answered them.  

What inspired you to make antique inspired dolls?  How did you decide to sell them?

My mother, aunts and grandmother were seamstresses and my sister and I learned to sew as girls. I remember an apron I made in 4-H, and learning to embroider as a child. Around 1980 I met Elizabeth Patton, a fellow antique collector who moved from Houston to Fort Worth.  She was a doll collector of mostly big papier maches and had done repair for a doll shop in Houston.  Sitting in a child's chair in Elizabeth’s house was a huge cloth doll in children's clothing - she was mind-boggling.  When Elizabeth told me she had made the doll, I could hardly believe it, and asked her if she ever shared her pattern.  Not yet, she said.  She had devised the pattern from a large doll she had repaired, she told me.  

To see more images of Sethany Fairchild, visit this photo album.

Several years later, she sold me her pattern, reserving the right to make her own dolls still, though I don't think she ever did. (In fact, she later had me to make her three, 36" black girl and black boy and 26" white girl.)  Soon in the mail came a flat envelope containing odd pieces of grocery sack, which I finally figured out was the pattern, without instructions.  

Naturally, I began to tinker with it, and my first efforts at painting were pretty crude, as I am a left-brain person and not at all artistic.  I had made stuffed toys for my children, so I didn't have to learn that.  I don't remember if Elizabeth had an undercoating, or if she used acrylics or oils, but the Miracle Messy Mixture was my own undercoating for the head, shoulders and arms. (See the recipe for Miracle Messy Mixture here). One of the first dolls I made was a 36" girl for Dolly Johnson (Dolly FairChild) in 1983, and then people began to order them.

This is a chicken or egg question:  Did your interest in dolls grow out of your love for antiques or did your love of antique dolls lead you to love antiques?  

I was an antique collector long before and not a doll collector.  Rug hooking also preceded dolls, as that began in 1978.  I was never, and am not to this day, interested in "fine dolls" of bisque, French bebes, etc., though did come to like early small chinas, cloth, wood, and small papier maches.   I am in awe of  Edyth's stunning collection.

In the course of our email conversation, Helen shared about the doll types she created:

Dolls Series Made by Helen Pringle

FairChildren

FairChildren were made in 36” and 26” sizes. They wore actual children's vintage clothes and shoes, or dresses in documentary prints or old fabric made especially for them. There were boy and girl and black and white versions of these dolls.  Helen numbered the larger dolls.

For years Helen included some antique piece with each, jewelry/handbag for the girls, pin/toy for the boys, until it became too expensive.  The 36" dolls had one bag of stuffing in the head and 2-1/2 to 3 in the rest of the doll.  The head pieces are double-stitched because of the large amount of stuffing needed to obtain the rounded shape.  Helen mentions that on special request, she made one baby in these dolls. Helen thinks she may have made up to 90 Fairchildren dolls.  Sethany, pictured above, is No. 58.

Maids and Lads of Salem

The Maids and Lads were 21” in height.  They were made for a Harvest Festival show at the Essex Museum (now the Peabody-Essex) in Salem, Mass.  They were small versions of the big Fairchildren dolls.  Their clothing and shoes were new, but in old styles.

Tansy/Tabby  - A Two-Faced Friend

Tansy-Tabby was made for a class Helen taught at a Doll Seminar in Utah, measuring 10-12” in height.  She was a small project to teach oil painting a doll in an easily portable unit.  Helen loves old topsys and has several in her collection of antique textiles. At one time Helen offered a pattern of Tansy/Tabby.  

Mary Mason-Dixon, She Has North and South Feet
(See Dixie's previous post

Mary Mason-Dixon dolls measure about 14-15".  She was inspired by an antique doll and was also sold as a pattern for other doll makers.   Helen says, “I loved the Marys; a friend in Maine asked me to repair her old, old cloth doll, which I did, and then gave me permission to reproduce her.  They came in both black and white girls; all the white Marys had red hair, and all the black Marys had black hair.The first one I made had a wig of red mohair, but the rest had painted hair. The Marys had a little verse that went with them, which I typed and printed on fabric on my printer.”

One of a Kind Dolls:

Helen also made one-of-a-kind cloth dolls occasionally - Emily Morgan, The Yellow Rose of Texas, Nizhoni, Navajo girl with moccasins made from old leather gloves and real turquoise jewelry.  Nizhoni is the Navajo word for beautiful.

Helen tried her hand at Sculpey and made several dolls of it.  She says it was wonderful fun.

For her niece's collection,Helen made a tiny replica of Hitty, just a little bigger than the real Hitty (made of wood) dressing her in a petticoat with her name cross-stitched on the front just like the original Hitty.

Helen made other doll heads/arms/legs from Sculpey and made cloth bodies for them.  Helen says, “The better one is Persona (The Pleasant Peasant), seated in a rustic chair with a wooden bowl and spoon in her lap, barefoot and with red hair in an early style.  Standing, she would be about 14-15" tall.”

All these one of a kind dolls were finish-painted with oils.

For someone who describes herself as “not at all artistic”,  Helen created a large body of three dimensional works, reminiscent of folk dolls of the past.  Helen’s dolls are beloved by doll makers and collectors alike.  Doll makers inspired by antiques want to emulate the spirit that Helen captured in her work.