China doll

A china doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of glazed porcelain. The name comes from china being used to refer to the material porcelain. Colloquially the term china doll is sometimes used to refer to any porcelain or bisque doll, but more specifically it describes only glazed dolls. A typical china doll has a glazed porcelain head with painted molded hair and a body made of cloth or leather. They range in size from more than 30" (76 cm) tall to 1 inch (2.5 cm). Antique china dolls were predominantly produced in Germany, with the peak of popularity between approximately 1850 and 1890. Rare and elaborately decorated antique china dolls can have value on the collectors market. Beginning in the mid-20th-century reproductions of china dolls of various quality were produced in Japan and the United States. History Antique china dolls were predominantly produced in Germany, from around 1840 into the 1930s with the peak in popularity between roughly 1850 and 1890. The earliest china dolls depicted grown women and were dressed in contemporary, fashionable clothes. These dolls display contemporary hairstyles: sausage curls, ribbons or headbands. From approximately the 1850s on, child-like china dolls became popular. Blonde-haired china dolls became more prevalent at the end of the 1800s.