IN THE DOLLS’ KINGDOM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2693, 24 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

IN THE DOLLS’ KINGDOM.

WORLD’S PREPARATION FOR CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS GIF J-S*

Not since the days when the first wooden doll was fashioned in ,the to ous old Nuitoberg has tb f erß Jf" "“re - a wonderful collection of do Is as a ready to be. displayed for the Christmas holiday trade this year, s } English exchange. f~ nT ,+ to To see the immense assortment is conclude that every little gir m the western world is to have a doll, and also that the race of dolls has miyhtAy increased in the past decade. Jhe mand 'of modern childhood can best b realised by a study of the dolls or tne day for they constitute a kingdom of Sown, id are a ? ore important feature of the holiday trade than any other. True, there ore miles and miles of mechanical toys, and tons va ™*J playthings for boys and girls, but upon 110 other one toy is so much t me an expensd bestowed as upon dons. Germany, Switzerland and France are the greatest storehouses for dolls, an England and the United States are The two countries where they are mos^n demand. Every English and American girl expects and is expected gifts of dolls at Christmas, and so J a ?*J has been the growth of the demand for them that no other department of the toy industry has kept pace With clou ra One g hundred and fifty years ago dolls were mere wooden images— when they were more than rolls of ra £S> , i piece of cloth, or a flimsy shmvl, tied round them. Now they are classified under many heads by the traoe, have a nomenclature of considerable length. And where once there Tf s + :2J head to a doll, -only a round ball tied at the neck, now dolls are classified according to the character of the head, and the price is invariably regulated by Previous to 1860, dolls were made of wood, for the most part • sometimes of lcid, with long, slender bodies, they were manufactured largely m the rLartz Mountains, and this region is town as the toy country of northern Lrermany. Billions of wooden dolls are made there now. In the Tyrol are villages where no other industry is carried on, and in France great numbers of the better class of dolls are manufactured. , , , While Germany, Switzerland, and France make the dolls, England is the doll clenring-hoiisG of tiiG worldNearly every doll made in Germany goes to England to be sold, nun Eng-r land ships a large proportoin of her sup ply to the United States and to. Australia and New Zealand, and to Canada. Dulls have been known from very ancient days. Considering their antiquity, it is" rather remarkable that no mention is made of them in the Bible True, it is, that images are referred to. and dolls were once wooden images; but there is nothing said in the Bible in connection with images that would lead one to conclude that dolls were known in the days of Abraham, or even of the Children of Israel. Still it may have been true that little girls Lad their make-believe babies and loved and cared for rag dolls, long before the name they now bear had been given to them.

Almost every good collection of curios" ities, from whatever race or tribe, contains specimens of dolls. Not only the Indian tribes of America, hut the tribes of Egypt prove that these toys were in use generally. It is known that Greek children had dolls, and, when Europeans made themselves acquainted with India and China, dolls were found there. In the ruins in Yucatan of the ancient and cultivated Maya civilisation some evidences of the existence of dolls have been found by explorers. Dolls are now perfect in finish and in costumes, and the French people have long used them as models for the newest^ styles in women’s dress—and, to have the dolls elegant enough to wear the costumes of the fashionable designers, the doll-makers invented ware and bisque heads that are marvels of beauty. One town in France is given over to the business of making dolls’ heads—those beautiful heads that- come to this country on the bodies of German or Swiss dolls and into which are put the lovely glass eyes formerly made in England but . now manufactured in Germany. Lime and earth constitute the material out of which the bisque doll heads are made, and these materials undergo an immense amount of preparation before they become the liquid that is poured into moulds. After the many sizes of dolls’ heads have been moulded. women and girls insert the eyes, affix the ears, and prepare them for the final baking, which requires fortyeight, hours. - \ \ : After the baking process they are subjected to a cooling, then a polishing, and finally a. sand-paper -treatment, which leaves them re%dy to have faces tinted, eyelashes, eyebrows, and rosy cheeks painted. Then back to the oven, go the dolls, to bake for hours and hours more . '

Finally, when they emerge from the factories, where they have cost so much patient effort pud ' artistic ability to complete, the dolls are ready for the fine clothing that will adorn them. Little girls who become their final possessors of these dolls never have the faintest, idea of the struggle it has been for +heir dolls to get born into the doll realm. Wax dolls, after bismie and china dolls, the costliest of the doll *fam;lv. and England is their home. The wax of which the heads arc made comes from the East Indies, for it. has been proved that no other wax. is so good for the purpose And, if at this scasni when the mannfacanrers are busv day and night, careless little girls could see the process of making a wax doll, and 1 particularly that of putting its eves in and its hair on, the immense amount of trouble it costs to make a doll mi<rht he impressed upon them, and they might lm less reckless about smashing their dolls.

Dolls’ eyes aro scientific eroatons, | They are made like the artificial hu**»ajj eyes, and are expensive. Uio process is, or would be, most interesting if j t could be known. But it is a trade secret, and so jealously guarded that the work is carried on at night and under conditions that prevent its being learned by outsiders. Each eye is separately blown, and there are three colors. It is not to be wondered at that they are costly, for they roqum great care in manufacture and tlk finest of materials. ~T Composition dolls and English raf' and rubber dolls represent the largest families among dolls. The composition doll is for hard usage, and is made, not of solid wax entirely, but of paper with u wax covering. The hair is not hnman, nor, as the little girl says, real, but is jute or mohair. The rag doll hag a wax back with a piece of lin €ll stitched over thg surface of the face, which makes the wax have a very soft and pleasant, appearance. The rag faces aro made separate from the head, but are fastened on to the skull, which is part and parcel of the body of the doil.

The majority of rag dolls have a cap adjusted, permanently to the head. The bodies are made of cotton goods stuffed with sawdust. Sometimes, they hare kid bodies, but usually they are of cot. ton. In England there are many large manufactories devoted entirely to the making of dolls, while the number of retail dealers is not known, so .great is the list.

The clothing of of late years requires as many manufactories as the making of dolls. Boots and shoes, stockings and gloves, hats and dresses, jewellery, equipage and complete wkA. robes for all occasions keep thousands of people employed.