Porcelain Doll Maker

Throughout the mid 19th century all the way into the early 20th century some of the most famous porcelain doll makers were in Germany. Their early dolls were made out of untinted bisque and were known as Parian, these doll were made in factories in Dresden and featured beautiful molded faces and hair. They also often featured other molded features such as bows and ribbons as well as snood and flowers. Some of them even had collars molded onto their necks and shoulders. Because of the delicate craftsmanship of each porcelain doll maker that went into each doll these dolls have become some of the rarest and most valuable to be found. This type of doll stayed very popular through the end of the century and could be dated by the changing hairstyles. However towards the end of the century china doll heads became more popular as they could be mass produced and came with a shiny glaze that was baked on over the untinted bisque instead of being painstakingly hand painted by an artist.

The new type of porcelain doll maker created dolls as small as 1 inch and as large as 24 inches as a cheaper alternative to the hand crafted tinted unglazed bisque that had become so popular. By the early 1890's German doll manufacturers were finally capable of mass producing a china doll that rivaled the quality of the hand crafted French dolls. As skills advanced the porcelain doll maker began to make dolls the resembled real children and featured emotions and facial expression. Painted eyes were being replaced by hand blown glass eyes that had the sleepy eyes feature where the eyelids would close over the eyes when the doll was laid flat. Many of these dolls had open mouths that displayed teeth, most commonly four upper teeth along with the use of real human hair or mohair wigs to add more realism to the dolls.

These were the original "Dolly Face" dolls and many of them were created in small cottage industries where sadly the name of the porcelain doll maker has long since been forgotten despite the beauty of the dolls he created. However not every doll maker has been forgotten as many of them placed their trademark on each doll created, names such as Heinrich Handiwerck, Kammer and Reinhard, Armand Marseille and Simon and Halbig placed their hallmark and the doll mold number on the dolls neck. These markings are now used to date a porcelain doll quite accurately. Although the porcelain doll has long since gone out of fashion as a toy, they are still considered a very valuable collector's item. As to the porcelain doll maker, well there are still a few around who have mastered the art of hand making their own dolls. At Yolis Dolls, Yolanda takes great pride in making each one of the dolls she sells by hand. No two are the same and they are all designed to represent a different area of her home country of Iran and are suitably clothed in the proper ethnic attire.