CLEOPATRA'S BOUDOIR

You may be familiar with a certain type of doll found sitting atop a bed...these dolls, called boudoir or bed dolls,  are pretty playthings with long limbs and composition faces with kohl rimmed eyes and bee stung lips. 

Contrary to popular belief, these were not meant for child's play but were made for adults to display reclining against the pillows of a lady or teenage girls bed. Other boudoir dolls were in half size and attached to a metal frame and the fabric dress on the doll would form a lamp shade.

Munzerlite boudoir doll lamps, from a 2008 ebay auction.

Boudoir dolls were sold in department stores, gift shops, thru mail order catalogs and even given as carnival prizes. Boudoir dolls were often given as premiums too, for example a big beautiful Boudoir Doll could have been yours with the purchase of any Lane Cedar Chest in the mid 1950s.

Kits were sold so you could create your own doll from a pattern as well as dressing it up with the accessories that came in the kit such as a straw hat, dress, shoes, silk roses, for just $1.95 in 1930. A company named "Household Arts by Alice Brooks" sold pattern kits in the 1930s  for boudoir dolls which could be made out of cotton or silk. "Let a boudoir doll add glamour to your room", says an advertisement for an Alice Brooks pattern. In 1934 she advertised the Alice in Wonderland themed boudoir doll pattern.

They come in a variety of shapes , but most feature long arms and long legs which are made up of either composition,celluloid, hard plastic of cloth. Composition, the most popular medium for boudoir dolls faces, was a substance made up of sawdust, rags, flour and or wood pulp bound together with glue, then molded to a desired shape. However, heads can also be found made of wax, glazed china, celluloid, felt or bisque.  Composition is very hard to maintain, and is very prone to cracking, crazing, bubbling, flaking and peeling of the paint. Manufacturers realized this and started to make dolls with compo heads and hard plastic limbs, then eventually hard plastic heads with limbs.

Boudoir doll from the 1930s, from a 2009 ebay auction.

The dolls heyday was from about 1915 to around the 1940s. The finest examples were made in France, but other boudoir dolls were made in Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Boudoir doll from a 2008 ebay auction.

By the 1950s, most boudoir doll faces and limbs were made up of rubber, vinyl and hard plastic. These later dolls were sold up until the 1970s and were often very inferior in quality to the dolls from the early 1900s.

Most dolls feature either human hair, silk floss or mohair wigs, later dolls have synthetic hair. Most have painted features with bee stung lips and heavy eyeshadow, kohl rimmed eyes and a beauty mark. Some even sport false eyelashes made from human hair or camel hair. The very best dolls have glass eyes that sleep instead of just painted on.

The bodies are made up of stuffed cotton, flannel, muslin, velvet, silk, felt and filled with straw, excelsior, kapok or even cotton batting and sometimes wear elaborate costumes.

Coiwgirl boudoir doll, circa 1920s, from a 2007 ebay auction

 The most common boudoir dolls are the flapper types dressed in their lounging pajamas, Pierrettes and brides with ruffled dresses, but I have also seen ethnic types, harem beauties and even nuns! The smoker dolls actually have a small simulated cigarette poking from their lips or held in the hand. Male dolls are a little harder to find, those that are dressed as sheiks are coveted by collectors.  Many dolls were made to portray famous females actresses like Pola Negri and other dolls might represent historical figures such as Martha Washington and Edgar Allan Poe's wife Annabel Lee.

Smoking Anita doll, circa 1920s, from a 2007 ebay auction

The dolls by the Italian maker Lenci have molded felt faces with eyes always glancing to the side. These are some of the most prized of all bed dolls and they command high prices when put up for sale. Look for the Lenci mark.

You can find dolls marked Anita, Alma, Keeneye, W-K-S Inc., Cornell, Gerling, Lobby, Smoker, "T",Gold, V, M, Sterling Doll Company, and more.

In the 1930s, you could purchase a satin rayon bedspread and a matching boudoir doll that concealed a pillow underneath her dress. Your choice of colors would have been rose, orchid, blue, gold or green. 

All photos used are from past ebay auctions found on worthpoint.