Saturday, October 30, 2010

Two Dutch Dolls

 These two Dutch dolls seemingly dressed for an adventure with a Golliwog in a Florence Upton book.

 The 1895 book by mother/daughter duo, Bertha and Florence Upton.
Here is a link for the Upton's book on Project Gutenberg.
There are two opinions about why dolls made in southern Germany came to be called Dutch dolls. One is that the word for Germany is Deutsch and sounds very much like the word Dutch which could have lead to the confusion. There is also the possibility that because some imports to England of toys and dolls came through the Dutch ports thus the perception of being a "Dutch" doll.

Grodner Valley Dolls







Beautiful peg wooden dolls made, I presume, in the Grodner Valley in what is now southern Germany and Northern Italy. The last doll pictured here is more refined and possibly earlier or from a different area of Germany. There are other areas such as the Nuremburg area and Sonneberg, Germany known for wooden toy manufacture. Most of the wooden toys made their way through the Nuremburg area for sale and distribution making it hard to attribute any one design to a specific locality.