Rescued Porcelain Dolls
These are dolls I have completely reconstructed from porcelain heads in very poor condition. The heads I use are found usually by people whose hobby is digging for antique artifacts in places known to have been the sites of Victorian rubbish dumps.
The main interest of the treasure hunters is in old bottles and glass; the doll heads are a by-product in which they have little interest. There are "bottle fairs" where these collectors sell and exchange their wares. I made my purchases at the BBR auction days in Elscar Heritage Centre, (Yorkshire in the UK), which take place about 4 times a year. Note that I would not recommend the trip for this purpose alone unless you are local to the area. The availability and condition of the heads is not consistent. Basically nothing is left of these dolls except the ceramic blank. Often the paint has been burnt off or contaminated and there may be eyes, usually sleep eyes rusted into position. Often the lead weights for the eyes have melted onto the inside of the head and I have seen the eyes themselves melted all over the rim of the eye making he head useless - you can never remove this.
I believe the glass and bottle collectors have a perception that French heads are valuable and thus I suspect dispose of them elsewhere. In consequence I have seen only the normal little German doll heads by lesser makers, bearing (if marked at all) the more widespread mould numbers; on thin evidence I estimate that the heads I have bought date from around 1912. The prices asked for these heads vary quite a lot; as well as what I consider bargains, many of the vendors wildly overestimate the value. Many of the heads are not only badly broken but also quite ugly, with their poor quality painting and jagged little teeth. However, sometimes a charming little face shines out at you, and costs no more than its surrounding ugly duckling sisters.
Once back at home the heads need a lot of cleaning. I soak them in biological washing powders, bleach, and also Steradent, or other product for cleaning false teeth. You can brush them with a soft tooth brush, but never rub with an abrasive unless it is your intention to remove all the paint. (Having said this, I now also use a metal polish intended for cleaning chrome on cars, but you need to exert extreme care as this is a very fine abrasive paste; however it also conatins some kind of acid for removing tarnish and it seems to work well on many of the heads when - as is often the case - stained with rust marks which are otherwise very hard to remove). After this if you are lucky you have a clean head without too many missing paint patches on the face, and you may have the eyes which cleaned up can be reinserted as stationary eyes for simplicity.
If a head is for any reason "nice" but the paint has mostly disappeared, you can, for example, make a your own mould from the head, (resulting in a reproduction doll some 15% smaller than your original), and perhaps then take the risk of repainting (often you can follow the lines of the original paintwork, visible as shadows) and firing. The head may crack - but after all these are essentially worthless heads which have already endured being burnt as rubbish, then buried for 100 years. If you don't want to take that risk you can also repaint with acrylics; this is a good option too because, if someone in the distant future is offended by your efforts they can easily remove the paint.
A final word on these dolls.
"True" collectors would be appalled at this whole idea. Any less than perfect doll should be discarded in favour of waiting for the "perfect" example. However I cannot (or more precisely do not want to) afford to collect perfect antiques of any sort. Nor is it my intention to attempt to pass these dolls off as originals - especially considering the way I reconstruct them this would be unlikely to fool anyone even unintentionally. I like to reconstruct these dolls because it is very pleasurable to be able to see some vision of the little plaything that someone enjoyed 100 years ago.