Doll

For other uses, see Doll (disambiguation).

Look up doll in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A doll is a child\'s toy that represents a baby or other human being, but includes likenesses of animals and imaginary creatures. Dolls have been around since the dawn of human civilization, and have been fashioned from a vast array of materials, ranging from stone, clay, wood, bone, cloth and paper, to porcelain, china, rubber and plastic.

A porcelain doll from the Czech Republic

While dolls have traditionally been toys for children, they are also collected by adults, for their nostalgic value, beauty, historical importance or financial value. In ancient times, dolls were used as representations of a deity, and played a central role in religious ceremonies and rituals. Lifelike or anatomically correct dolls are used by health professionals, medical schools and social workers to train doctors and nurses in various health procedures or investigate cases of sexual abuse of children. Artists sometimes use jointed wooden mannequins in drawing the human figure. Action figures representing superheroes and their predecessors, action dollsNew York Times article, are particularly popular among boys. Baby dolls, paper dolls, talking dolls, fashion dolls - the list is almost endless.

Contents 1 History 2 Materials 3 Doll hospitals 4 Collectors\' items 5 Dolls as Art 6 Famous types of dolls 7 Festivals and Exhibits 8 Doll museums and collections 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

History

Archaeological evidence places dolls as foremost candidate for oldest known toy, having been found in Egyptian tombs which date to as early as 2000 BC. In Egypt, as well as Greece and Rome, it was common to find them in the graves of children. Most were made of wood, although pottery dolls were buried with children from wealthier families. Dolls with movable limbs and removable clothing date back to 200 BCE.

Europe later became the center of dollmaking. In the United States, dollmaking became an industry in the 1860s, after the Civil War. http://ctdollartists.com/history.htm The development of plastics after World War II led to the manufacture of new types of dolls and brought down their price.

Dolls have featured in modern art and fine art photography, notably in surrealist works. The "evil doll" has been a feature of horror literature, horror films and animation since the 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

Materials

Dolls over the ages have been made from every conceivable material: bisque, celluloid, china, clay, cloth, corn husks paper, plastic, polymer clay, porcelain, resin, rubber, vinyl, wax wood, bone, ivory, papier-mâché, leather etc.

Doll hospitals

Repair and restoration of antique and other dolls is carried out at doll hospitals, many of which have been operating for decades.http://www.timelessdollhospital.com/http://www.reallygreattoys.com/dollhospital/ Henri Launay, who has been repairing dolls at his shop in northeast Paris for 43 years, says he has restored over 30,000 dolls in the course of his career. Most of the clients are not children, but adults in their 50s and 60s.

Collectors\' items

Antique dolls have become collector\'s items. Nineteeth-century bisque dolls made by French manufacturers such as Bru and Jumeau may be worth almost $22,000 today. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/07/travel/dolls.php

Dolls as Art

Dolls have always been created as folk art in cultures around the globe, and in the 20th century, dolls began to be accepted as high art. Artist Hans Bellmer made surrealistic dolls that had interchangable limbs in 1930\'s and 1940\'s Germany as opposition to the Nazi party\'s idolization of a perfect Aryan body. East Village artist Greer Lankton became famous in the 1980\'s for her theatrical window displays using lifesize dolls and took the art of doll making to a new level, creating distressed, drug addicted, anorexic and mutant dolls charged with an edgy sexuality. Jojo Baby, a student of Lankton\'s, continues to work in New York making doll scultures that fetch prices of up to $2,000. http://www.charcoll.com/collective/jojoprofile.html

Famous types of dolls

Action figures American Girl Ball-jointed doll Betsy Wetsy Blythe Bobblehead doll Brass Key Keepsakes Cabbage Patch Kids Celebrity doll Chatty Cathy Cindy Smart Dollikins (also called Action Girl) Fashion dolls Barbie and Ken Bratz Pullip Sindy Tammy Gigi Golliwogg Hakata ningyō Jumeau Dolls Kewpie doll

Kokeshi My Child My Little Pony Paper doll Pinocchio Raggedy Ann and Andy Strawberry Shortcake Teddy bear Tiny Tears Troll doll Waldorf Doll African dolls Black dolls Hopi Kachina dolls Inuit/Eskimo dolls Japanese dolls Japanese traditional dolls Kachina dolls Matryoshka doll Russian dolls Voodoo doll Worry dolls

Festivals and Exhibits

• Hinamatsuri (Japanese doll festival)

Doll museums and collections

• Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, London
• Johnny Gruelle Raggedy Ann & Andy Museum, Arcola, Illinois http://raggedyann-museum.org
• Deutsches Puppen-und Bärenmuseum, Germany
• Doll and Toy Museum of the City of New York
• Musee de la Poupee et du Jouet Ancien, Paris
• Toy Museum, Prague
• Yokohama Doll Museum, Japan
• Shankar\'s International Doll Museum, New Delhi http://www.childrensbooktrust.com/dm.html)
• Istanbul Toy Museum

See also

• Stuffed animal
• Simpich Character Dolls

References

History of paper dolls - http://www.opdag.com/History.html

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Dolls

• The Asian Dolls Store Collectible Dolls from China, Japan, Korea, India dedicated to Children adopted from China
• RubyRedGalleria.com - Shopping Mall for Doll
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization - The Story of Dolls in Canada
• Dolls at World Collectors Net Dolls histories, features on collecting, and collectible Dolls discussion
• Project An exposition around dolls & automats
• Dolls Around the World Museum of International Folk Art website
• Poupées Pascaline French collection dolls
• Miss Yamaguchi Torei Ningyo (Doll of Gratitude) Museum of International Folk Art websit
• United Federation of Doll Clubs
• National Institute of American Doll Artist NIADA
• Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets
• http://www.bisque-dolls.com
• Dolls. Childhood. Victoria and Albert Museum
• Crochet Dolls
• The Lenci Doll Collector. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.

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