A Victorian Childhood

In the early part of the nineteenth century, shades of the earlier aristocratic power remained. During the previous century a very large gap between the privileged rich and the people existed. Consequently, the very few toys from that period which remain, belonged to the children of the very rich. In this age, the attitude of people to their children was very different from our own. Children were expected to become adults very quickly. Life spans were very short, and children, particularly those of the rich, who survived infancy, often married young to provide heirs for the great aristocratic houses. Famous oil paintings, done at this time, show children exquisitely dressed as replicas of adults, nursing dolls similarly adorned as stiff formal ladies. As the century progressed the growing Industrial Revolution produced a vigorous middle class with changing values toward many things, including their children. The strict conformity and severity relaxed and people began to believe that children should enjoy a measure of childhood.

Girl with a bisque doll, c1895. Doll is probably Simon & Halbig for Heinrich Handwerck (sundayvisit)

Books for children were written and, although they were mostly moralizing in tone, were often beautifully illustrated, and recognised for the first time that children needed to play. Life became easier for many people, and less of a struggle just to exist, so more time for leisure and play was created. Victorian families were large, and parents took great pride in their brood of children and provided them with the great diversity of dolls and toys then becoming available. The stiff formalized wooden dolls of the earlier 19th century were superseded by the lovely child-like wax dolls of the 1850's and 1860’s. Ingenious and prolific toys of every kind flooded a very competitive market, many of these made in intricate detail by skilled craftsmen for a few farthings each. As yet the artisans and working classes, struggling in the sometimes difficult times created by the growing mechanization, did not share in the affluence of the middle classes. The children of the poor still made do with a clothes peg wrapped in a rag for a doll, or a sliver of stone as a toy soldier. By the 1870's "Victorianism” was at its height. People believed that wealth should be displayed in ostentatious ways, and this was the period usually associated with rooms crammed with highly ornamented knickknacks. Furniture, richly carved and solid, stood in houses filled with all manner of charming but unnecessary fripperies. As the children of the time were weighed down with rich clothing, frilled and pleated, similarly their dolls were exquisitely dressed, often with large wardrobes of doll clothes. This period was the pinnacle of doll and toy manufacturing. Makers vied with each other to produce dolls of intricate detail, and we find many novelties at this time. Walking, talking and swimming dolls emerged, dolls with trunks crammed with the social impediments of the day, miniature lorgnettes, engraved visiting cards abounded. These lovely dolls were usually treasured and became "Sunday dolls" only being handled and admired on a Sunday. This tender care has ensured that so many of these dolls have remained in perfect condition to the present day. Toward the end of the 19th century, even the children of the working people could share in these delights of childhood, but sadly often standards declined in the general mass production. But against this, a feeling that children should be uninhibited and free to express themselves was growing. This was exhibited in the naturalistic baby dolls, educational building blocks and creative toys on the market. Thus, by the end of the Victorian era children had begun to be appreciated as children, and parents fondly regarded childhood as a happy time of play and learning with all its warmth and charm.

Judith Leaney writing in 1974-11 DTHS Newsletter

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The Dolls of the Nineteenth Century

As there had been recently, an interest in our wax telephone doll, Judith Leaney, our President was asked to give a talk on wax dolls illustrated by examples from her collection. 

Wax had been a popular medium for use in making religious figures as far back as Egyptian times. In the Middle Ages, models known as creche dolls were made to represent the Christ child and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, full sized wax figures, modelled mainly in Italy were used as medical figures, as indeed were modelled limbs, used for teaching and anatomical knowledge. 

Shows for public entertainment, such as Madame Tussaud's wax works were popular. The people gaped at wax models of heroes such as Wellington and Napoleon as well as notorious highwaymen and murderers - Neil Cream and William Corder.

As wax provided a soft, malleable, and very life-like medium, it was only natural, that it should be used to make toys for children. 

Childhood was short in the early nineteenth century, with many babies dying before their fifth birthday, so little thought was given to amusenent and leisure for children. By 1850, health had improved, thinking had changed, and provision began to be made for games and pleasures for children. 

The wax doll industry boomed about this time and lasted in England up to about 1910, when other, more realistic mediums such as celluloid came on to the market. The heyday of wax doll manufacture was the 1880's and l890's when some of the 1nore talented wax rnodellers such as Montanari and Pierotti set up their trade in London. 

At this time, some of the most beautiful expensive wax dolls were produced for the children of the richer people. 

Some dolls were known as waxed dolls, which was a process of dipping a papier-mache moulded head in a solution of wax and other ingredients giving a soft flesh like surface to the head. Dolls heads made by this method were liable to crack in cold weather giving a rather macabre appearance to the doll.

This was common and familiar to collectors of this type of doll. Poured wax dolls were the most durable and beautiful of the wax dolls of the mid to late Victorian era. During the process, a sculptor would shape the head, and plaster moulds would be made. Then warm molten wax was poured into the casting. The skill lay in the technique in turning, the basic wax shell into a lovely doll.

Up to 20 technicians were required to colour the doll, make eyeholes, and insert eyes. Eyebrows and lashes were inserted and hair was added into the scalp in small tufts. Often at the hairline, a needle inserted individual hairs singly. Then the needlewomen would sew beautiful, often hand made clothes, layers of underwear and lovely outer garments. Charming little shoes were added and the doll was ready to be sold in the exclusive London toyshops.  At the high prices of £5.00 to £20.00, it is not surprising that these dolls were prerogative of the very rich. 

Judith showed us some examples of each of these types of dolls, and Carmen Woodward had brought along a lovely old wax doll, a family heirloom, complete with original clothes, to add to the interest. 

Wax dolls continued to be made in England up to 1910-1915, when they discontinued. New, more durable and realistic mediums such as celluloid became popular Children wanted more play value, being able to wash and undress their dolls, instead of having a beautifully dressed, but stiff, unyielding wax doll.  However, collectors are grateful for the loving care of these dolls by their little Victorian era owners glad that so many treasures have survived in good condition to pass into history.

Source: 2012-09 DTHS Newsletter