I collect paper dolls and am fondest of the ones made pre-1950s. I especially love old advertising dolls. The lithography gave them a richness you would never see in later day dolls.
I purchased this doll several years ago on eBay. The seller was elderly and selling off some dolls his late wife had owned. I told him they'd be taken care of.
When looking at old dolls like this I wonder more about the hands they've passed through than who manufactured them. This particular doll dates to 1895.
To receive this doll back in 1895 the buyer had to first buy five packages of None Such New England Mince Meat and cut the heads off the woman holding a pie on the package. Sounds a little brutal. They were then supposed to send 10 cents in silver along with the heads. Starts to sound a bit like a ransom. If they didn't have the 10 cents, which was apparently the shipping charge, they could cut off 20 heads and get it for free. Now it's just starting to sound like an episode of CSI.
To read about the company that sold the dolls, Merrill-Soule headquarter in Syracuse, click here. The printer was Forbes Lithography located in Boston, Massachusetts.
This post ties in with this weeks posts on my photography blog, Tattered and Lost Photographs, where the category is dolls.
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