A beautiful, very tender feeling doll I think, which I believe dates to sometime between about 1910 and 1930. Her head and body were made of of black knit stocking firmly stuffed, with separate rolled pieces for her arms and legs, which were hand-stitched to the torso. Hand-embroidered black eyes, red nose and slightly open red mouth, adding up to a face that makes her feel to me keenly observant if a bit wary. Her hair is astrakhan (lambs wool, still attached to the hide), which was often used for black dolls. Wearing the white cotton dress with light blue embroidered trim that I found her in, which is very pretty, in very good condition, and fits her well, if just a bit long on the arms, though the sleeves can be pushed up a bit.
10 1/2” tall x 5 1/2” wide and in good overall condition. Some loosening to the stitching connecting one of her arms to the torso, but there is no stuffing there to come out and it is holding on fine (and a few more stitches to reinforce it would be very easy to do. A few lost stitches along the crown of her hair but it is still held firmly in place; again it could be easily reinforced with a few new black stitches.
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