DOLL, an imitative baby used as a toy by girls. The word doll is of doubtful deriva tion; possibly from idol; in French, the name is • in German, puppe, from Lat. pupa, a girl, a doll. The use of dolls dates from the most remote times, and is common in all countries, barbarous as well as civilized, because it springs from that love of nursing and fondling infants which is implanted by nature in the female character. Precisely as a child in a princely mansion in fondles a finely dressed doll worth a guinea, so does the child of an African or Esquimaux take delight in a piece of wood or bone carved rudely in the form of a baby—in fact, girls in the bumbler ranks may sometimes be seen hugging and talking to a bit of stick decorated with a few rags, as if it were a live child. This is not the place to discuss this curious psychological phe nomenon; it is enough to say that the love of dolls is a perfectly legitimate feeling, and its exercise helps to cultivate not only tender affections, but taste as regards the making and management of children's dresses. Accordingly, the keeping of a doll becomes a part of the home education of girls; and is recognized to be so by the universality of the practice.
As in the case of most other toys (q.v.), dolls were at one time imported into Great Britain chiefly from the Netherlands; and hence not an unusual name for a doll was a Flanders baby. These old Flemish or Dutch dolls were made of wood, with neatly formed faces and flashy dresses, the cheaper kinds having slender wooden legs. Lat terly, there have been great improvements in the making of dolls, and in England it has assumed the character of a manufacture; but there are still large importations from the countries on the Rhine, France, and Switzerland. In these continental countries, women and children are mostly engaged in the manufacture. Some carve the heads and bodies, others paint the faces and necks, others prepare legs and arms, and a different class cut out, sew, and put on the dresses. These operations are seldom executed in one manu factory. Usually, dealers buy the fragments so far prepared by villagers, and get them put together in a wholesale way. As the time employed in the preparatory processes is scarcely of any marketable value, the prices of fragments are most insignificant. Hence, as regards all the cheap kinds, with painted faces and ringlets, dolls can be imported at a cost below that at which they could be executed by hand-labor in England. When, however, we come to dolls of a superior kind, with molded wax or composition faces, arms and feet, glass eyes, stuffed bodies, flaxen ringlets, and gauze dresses, the English, by their machinery and capital, carry off the trade. In London there is a considerable
number of doll-makers, manufacturing dolls of wax, gutta-percha, india-rubber, etc. In this as in other trades, there is an economic division of labor; there are dolls' head makers, dolls' leg and arm makers, doll sewers, doll stuffers, dolls' wig-makers, dolls' eye-makers, and doll dressers. For some dresses, remnants of calico, gauze, silk, and other materials, are procured from shops; but for fashionably dressed dolls, much in demand, it is necessary to buy goods on a large scale. The extent to which doll's glass eyes are manufactured appears surprising. Some years ago, in evidence before a com mittee of the house of commons, a glass-manufacturer at Birmingham stated that he had received, at one time, an order for £500 worth of dolls' eyes. The cheaper dolls' eyes are simply small hollow glass-beads, made of white enamel, and colored with black or blue, but without any attempt at variety or effect: while those eyes of a higher quality have a ring of color to represent the iris. The introduction of wires and mechanism to make the eyes move or wink at pleasure, and also to cause the doll to utter the sounds " papa" and " mamma," have been highly appreciated steps in advance, with a corre sponding rise in prices. It is stated in the experience of the trade, that since Victoria came to the throne, blue eyes for dolls have been in the ascendant in England; but that black eyes find the best market on the continent, especially for Spanish dolls. Black dolls are made for export to America, where they are in request by,girls of negro parent age, and the introduction of gutta-percha is favorable for this branch of the trade. Composition-heads are usually made of papier macho, cast in a mold, and waxed and painted to represent the features.
One of the most attractive stalls at the great exhibition in 1851, was that which con tained the dolls of Mme. Montanari, a London manufacturer. Referring to this stall, the jury report said: "It consists of a series of dolls, representing all ages, from infancy to womanhood, arranged in several family groups, with suitable and elegant model fur niture. These dolls have the hair, eyelashes, and eyelids separately inserted in the wax, and are, in other respects, modeled with lifelike truthfulness. Much skill is also evinced in the variety of expression which is given to these figures, in regard to the ages and stations which they are intended to represent." Some of those dolls were sold at five guineas undressed; and at a greatly increased price when richly attired. The same exhibition showed how much skill is now exercised in making rag-dolls, in which almost every part is formed of textile materials.