Dear Helaine and Joe: I was wondering if you could give me any information about the doll in this picture. It belonged to my mother, who was born in 1888 and received it when she was a little girl. This doll is 36 inches tall with a molded head, large eyes, long eyelashes, molded legs with high-heeled shoes and black-lace stockings. — D.D., Morrison, Colo.
Dear D.D.: Oh, what an elegant doll this is — blond silk-floss hair, bee-stung lips with a tiny "beauty mark" in the corner, flirty eyes looking off to one side and a saucy red-gray-and-black dress embellished with what appears to be a pin shaped like a bee at the waist. This doll looks like and is a child of the 1920s, which means that the family history associated with her is not quite accurate.
This becomes a bit clearer when it is understood that this is not a little girl's doll. Instead, it is called a boudoir or bed doll and was meant to recline against the pillows on a woman's or young lady's bed.
Boudoir dolls came in a variety of styles, but they are always recognized by their elongated shapes with long arms and long legs. The heads were generally made from either cloth or composition, which is a substance made from materials such as sawdust, rags, flour and/or wood pulp bound together with glue. However, heads made from wax and ceramics can be found.
For the most part, these dolls were made between about 1915 and the 1940s, but modern examples do exist. Most were made in France, but boudoir dolls also were made in Italy, Britain and the United States.
As a general rule, these dolls have wigs made from either mohair or silk floss (thread) and they have painted features with eyelashes that are sometime made from real hair.
Their bodies are stuffed cloth, and their features are painted on. But the very best ones have glass eyes.
Boudoir dolls made by Lenci with adorable molded felt faces (look for the maker's tag) might be valued at more than $1,000, but most dolls of this type are worth somewhat less.
Standard-quality boudoir dolls should be valued at no more that $250 in the 30-inch size, and prices seldom rise above $500. Models with wax heads are an exception and should be valued about $650 for insurance replacement purposes. One that is shown smoking, generally from the 1920s, is worth just a little less, at around $500.
Boudoir dolls with composition heads from the 1920s are prized in general, and the example belonging to D.D. is an excellent example of this genre.
Helaine loves the period dress and the pin at the waist, and Joe likes the black-lace stockings and the face that looks like it belongs to a flapper. In excellent condition, the insurance replacement value on this circa-1925 doll is between $350 and $450.
Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of "Treasures in Your Attic" (HarperCollins, $18). Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208