Doll's Eye Making

(From the Morning Chronicle's Special Correspondent.)

"I make all kinds of eyes," he said, "both dolls' and human eyes; the birds' eyes aro mostly manufactured in Birmingham. Of dolls' eyes there are two sorts - the common and the natural, as we call it. The common are simply small hollow glass spheres, made of white enamel, and coloured either black or blue (only two colours are made). The bettermost dolls' eyes, or natural ones, are made in a superior manner, but after a similar fashion to the others. You see this blue one : it has the iris correctly represented. I have been in the trade upwards of forty years and my father followed it for sixty years before me. The price of the common black and blue dolls' eyes is 5s. for twelve dozen pairs of the small ones, and about 6s. for the same quantity of the large ones. We make very few of the bettermost kind, or natural ones. The price for those is about 4d. a pair, but they are only for the very best dolls. A man may make about twelve dozen pairs of the commoner, and about two or three dozen pairs of the better kind, in the course of the day. Average it throughout the year, a journeyman dolls'-eye maker earns about 30s. a week. There are very few journeymen in the trade. We employ only two men, and the other party in the trade has, I believe, six workpeople, three of whom are females.



The common dolls' eyes were 12s. the twelve dozen pairs, twenty-five years ago - now they are only 5s. The decrease of the price is owing to competition; for, though there are only two of us in the trade in London, still the other party is always forcing his business by underselling us. Immediately the demand ceases at all, he offers his eyes at a lower price than in the regular season, and so the prices have been falling every year. There's a brisk and a slack season in our business, as well as in most others. After the Christmas holidays, up to March, we have generally little to do; but from that time the eyes begin to look up a hit, and the business remains pretty good till the end of October. Where we make one pair of eyes for home consumption, we make ten for exportation. Yes, I suppose we should be soon over-populated with dolls if a great number of them were not to emigrate every year. The increase of dolls goes on at an alarming rate every year. As you say, sir, the annual rate of mortality must be very high, to be sure, but still it's nothing to the rate at which they are brought into existence. They can't make wax dolls in America, sir, so we ship off a great many there. I makes eyes for a French house at Havre that exports a vast quantity. The reason why they cannot produce wax dolls in America is owing to the climate. The wax won't set in very hot weather, and it cracks in extreme cold. I know a party who went out there to start as doll maker, he took several gross of my eyes with him, but he couldn't succeed. The eyes that we make for Spanish America are all black. A blue-eyed doll in that country wouldn't sell at all. Here, however, nothing goes down but blue eyes The reason for this is, because that's the colour of the Queen's eyes, and she sets the fashion in this as in other things. We make the same kind of eyes for the gutta percha dolls as for the wax. It is true, the gutta percha complexion isn't particularly clear, but our eyes are the natural tint, and if the gutta percha dolls look bilious, why we a'n't a going to make our eyes bilious to match. It is not true that an order was given for £500 worth of doll's eyes. I know Mr M'Culloch says as much in his Commercial Dictionary, but it was contradicted at the time. The largest order I ever knew given at one time was for £50, and that was from the speaking doll-maker in High Holborn. We also make human eyes. Here are two cases one black and hazel, and the other blue and grey." [He then took the lids off a couple of boxes that stood on the table: they each contained 190 different eyes, and so like nature that the effect produced upon a person unaccustomed to the sight was most peculiar and far from pleasant. They all seemed to be staring directly at the spectator, and occasioned a feeling somewhat similar to the bewilderment one experiences on suddenly becoming an object of general notice. The eyes of the whole world literally appeared to be fixed upon you, and it was almost impossible for the spectator at first to look at them without instinctively averting his head. The hundred eyes of Argus were positively insignificant in comparison with the 380 belonging to the human eye maker.] "Here, you see, are the ladies' eyes," he continued, taking one from the blue-eye tray, "you see it's clearer, and not so bilious as the gentlemen's. There's more sparkle and brilliance about them. Here's two different ladies' eyes - fine looking young women both of them, When a lady or gentleman comes to us for an eye we are obliged to have a sitting just like a portrait-painter. We take no sketch, but study the tints of the perfect eye. There are a number of eyes come over from France -but these are generally misfits. They are sold cheap, and seldom match the other eye. Again, from not fitting tight over the ball, like those that are made expressly for a person, they seldom move 'consentaneously,' as it is termed, with the natural eye, and have, therefore, a very unpleasant and fixed look - worse almost than the defective eye itself. Our artificial eyes move so freely, and have so natural an appearance, that one gentleman passed nine doctors without his false eye being detected. There is one lady who has been married three years to her husband, and I believe he doesn't' know that she has a false eye to this day. The generality of persons take out their eyes when they go to bed, and sleep with them either under their pillow, or else in a tumbler of water beside their bed. Most married ladies never take their eyes out at all. Some people will wear out a false eye in half the time of others. This doesn't arise from the greater use of them, but from the increased secretion of the tears, which act on the false eye like acid on metal, and so corrodes and roughens the surface, This roughness pro-duces inflammation, and then a new eye becomes necessary. The Scotch lose a great many oyes - why I cannot say; and the men lose more eyes than the women. A great many eyes are lost through accidents while shooting. We generally make only one eye, but I did once make two false eyes for a widow lady. She lost one first, and we repaired the loss so well for her that, on her loosing the other, she got us to make a second for her. False eyes are a great charity to servants. If they lose an eye no one will engage them. In Paris, there is a charitable institution for the supply of false eyes to the poor; and I really think if there was a similar establishment in this country for furnishing artificial eyes to those whose bread depends upon their looks - like servants - it would do a great deal of good. We always supply eyes to such people at half price. Our usual price is £2 2s. for one of our best. I suppose we make from three to four hundred false eyes every year. The human eyes are part blown and part cast, and we are obliged to be very good chemists to know the action of the metallic oxides on the fire, so as to produce the proper colour of the iris. The great art of making a false eye is in polishing the edges quite smooth. The fire polish alone will do this. Tho French eyes are cut to fit the eye-ball by tho lapidary in this country; the edges consequently, are left rough, and this causes great irritation. Of dolls' eyes, we make about 500 gross of pairs of the common ones every year. I take it there are, of all sorts, near upon 21,000 dozen pairs of dolls' eyes made in London every year.'

1850 'DOLL'S EYE MAKING.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 27 July, p. 6. , viewed 15 Jul 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12919766