History of Dolls

Posted on 13 mar 2008

Every nation has its toys, which reflect social life style, traditions, technical and art achievements. Toys of different nations are similar to each other by construction, form, decoration. It is so because children play not only in luxurious palace but in thatched hut too.

The dolls are a child's toy that personifies a baby or other human being. Dolls have been around since the time immemorial, and were fashioned from different materials - stone, clay, wood, bone, corn husk paper, porcelain.

The dolls also are collected by adults, especially antique dolls. Nineteeth-century bisque dolls manufactured by French producers such as Bru and Jumeau cost almost $22,000 today In ancient times, dolls represented deities, and occupied an important role in religious ceremonies and rituals. Voodoo dolls are well known nowadays though their assigning is used slightly different in comparison with the initial one.

The most ancient dolls have been found in Egyptian tombs. Their age is dated to more than 4000 years. They are cut of wooden planks; right – angled patterns imitating clothes, decorated them. In Egypt and later in Greece and Rome wooden dolls or pottery dolls were put in the graves of children. Doctors and nurses are trained in different health procedures on lifelike dolls. Anatomically correct dolls are used to investigate the cases of children’s sexual abuse and in medical schools. Baby dolls, talking dolls, paper dolls, and fashion dolls are very popular with the girls and the boys nowadays. Later Europe turned into the center of dollmaking. The doll making craft turned into industry in the USA by the end of XIX century only.

Dolls have distinguished in modern art and fine art photography, especially in surrealist works. The characteristic feature of horror literature, horror films and animation since the 1950s has been the "evil doll".

Nowadays the doll makers use bisque, celluloid, clay, cloth materials, cane and corn husk, plastic, vinyl, wax wood, leather, ivory etc turning the art of doll making into the most attractive type of arts in general.