The morning times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-11
DOLL TRADE Is LARGE.
Curious Business Subject to the yarl
atoms of Public Taste.
Pail Mall Gazette

dtlOnS OF EuDlC Taste
Pail Mall Gazette.
The majority of the dolls one sees in the
shops are made in Germany. The German
gives a larger doll for the money than any
other maker. His doll is less elegant than
that Of the Ffenchman. She has the moon
faced loneliness of the German peasant
girl, plunlpness of figure and a thick
ness of calf distinctly Teutonic. Her hair
as rule, is flaxen: her eyes are blue, her
lips fun, and her cheeks puffed and pendu-
lous. Whether she stands six inches or
three feet in height she is the same dol.
Her head may be as large as an apple or
as small as cherry, but the features and
expression are the same. She is uniformly
Overfed, whatever be her proportions.
and she is simply 4 reproduction IN vari-
Gus sizes OF one eternal and mOUotonous
type. To see her by the hundred. with
her hair tied up in the light blue ribbons and
her well-stuffed figure ORA ped in The Chemise
in which she is put on the market. is to
wonder why some one does not break
through convention aud make a fortune
by turning dolls with aquiIne noses and
Greek profile.
The French dolls come next in point OF
numbers in the English market. They are
less obese than their German competitors.
They Recommendations and bearing. They
express something of the yivacity Of the
French temperament. and their hair is OF
glorious Partisan gold and Occasionally OF
bronze. They run in all sizes Of course,
and in the making OF them there are many
motions and mysteries. There are dolls
that open and shut their eyes; dolls that cry
and dolls that remain dumb under any pres
sure; dolls with legs OF china; dolls inedscd
in kid and sewn up by many seams, and dolls
which are mere bundles OF cotton, and cloth,
and stuffing. with wax heads and shoulders
and composition feet.
In make and attri!uteS-SuCh as eye
shutting. walking, ability to stand upright,
and to emit sounds between squeaI and
gTunt-the German dolInaker Stems to be
on a level with the French. The difference
is apparent in a certain elegance and
piquanCy on the part of the French doll.
She suggests the boulevard while the Ger
man product tells OF the farm yard and the
dairy.
AS for the English doll, she stu finds q
market, but she is not in it with her
German cousin. Her chief glory is in her
apparel. She is not offered for sale in an
undergarment. but comes on the scene
booted, hated and cloaked. the better TO
hide her rag-stuffed form and TO tone
down the rOughness Of her composition
| face which is Il mere mask stuck on a
hat-cOvered ball of rags. She has no
tricks. She cannot use her eyes like the
French doll, or give demonstrating grOan
like the German, and if she is put en- her feet
t.f,a Sol ~1,f Il ~ II
| for next to nothing. Her manufacturers
! do not seem to care whether they make
| her or not, and as they put a good price
| on her the German and French dolls
! leave her tagging in the market place,
| while they go out into the world of chill
dren TO be clothed and petted until their
| hair fails off and their faces melt. That
| same hair, by the way, is made in England.
We export 1t to the German dOllnakers.
| aud yet we cannot or do not make the
| d oils our selves.