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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Brooding Over a Boudoir Doll

Here is a boudoir doll that I bid for and won recently on Ebay.


I had to bid on her, liking her gold satin dress, and the floppy satin hat.   I'd been thinking about buying a Boudoir doll, and this one hooked me.


Her eyes, though, are missing paint and she is missing some paint on her lips.  When I looked directly into her face for the first time, I actually jumped up and said "Ah!  She's scarey!" 
"Put her away, you're making me scared," my husband said. 
I went and researched more online about these dolls.  They were quite a fad.  After reading about them, I had swirling in my mind the elongated limbs and neon-eyes of the artist-illustrator Tamara de Lempicka.  And the elongated women whom I never liked, by the illustrator Erte.  And Hollywood's golden age, the flapper movement, decadence.  All these trends were swirling around and so these dolls were mass produced, and various designs and construction patented to capitalize on the trend.  The dolls petered out by WWII.
I wonder why I got this doll.  I guess I wanted to see what one is actually like in person.  As in, how does its presence feel.  I don't see them ever at the local doll shows.  They are not expensive (yet) to buy. 

This particular doll, I am pretty sure from the marking on the back, is a "Keeneye."  The satin of her costume is a blend of pink - gold - green.  I cleaned it (above are her leggings, cleaned and below is the skirt, cleaned) and it has that satiny feel now, and wonderful sheen: 






Then I tried to draw boudoir eyes on cloth, using a little abandoned doll of mine I had sitting around.


This looks odd but I guess that is how I feel so far about the boudoir doll.  
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