Antique
Mechanical dolls are referenced as early as the mid 17th century with the golden
years being roughly 1850 to the early 1900s.
Antique
Automata dolls or Mechanical dolls, are dolls that moved, usually through a clock
work like mechanism, the dolls were made by Americans, French and Germans.
Some
types of mechanical dolls are: Automatrons; dolls that played a
musical instrument, Animated dolls, Autoperipatetikos dolls, Cymbaler dolls, Gigoteur dolls that cry, kick, walk
or talk.
Musical Marottes; a doll head on a stick atop a music box, Ondine swimming
dolls. Dolls with Pull Toys, Phonograph dolls,
Creeping,
Walking, Talking, Kiss throwing dolls and Waltzing dolls, are some of
the early movable, magical and innovative dolls that have amused adults and
children.
Jules N. Steiner 15" Waltzing Lady doll body
1862 The patent Autoperipatetikos
or Walking doll by Enoch Rice Morrison,
9 1/2-10" tall.
She has a cloth, papier mâche, China or untinted bisque
head with painted facial features and walks by a key wound, clock work
mechanism. Doll marked on base:
Patented July 15th, 1862: also, in England. or
Patented July 15th, 1862: also, in Europe, 20 Dec. 1862.
Distributed by
Daniel S. Cohen and Joseph Lyon & Co. of New York City, Martin & Runyon of London, plus others.
1772 Android - Automata doll;
La Joueuse de Tympanon -
The Dulcimer Player
Created in 1772 by Pierre Kintzing a watch maker and David Roentgen a
cabinet maker.
Purchased by Queen Marie Antoinette of France in 1785, restored in 1864 by
Jean Eugene Roubert-Houdin and now resides in the Musée des Arts et Métiers.
Video courtesy of You Tube
Additional Doll Makers of
Antique
to Vintage Mechanical Dolls not shown
Automata
Mechanical Doll makers or suppliers of the bisque doll heads;
Adolf Ascher,
Althof, Bergmann Co., Dehais, Fischer, Naumann & Company,
Fleischmann & Bloedel
(or Blödel),
Adolph Fleischmann & Cramer,
Arthur Heinze, I M Helvetic Corp. also called H & M Corp.,
Gebrüder Heubach, Ives, Blakeslee & Co,
Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Kestner, Léopold
Lambert
& Eugénie Bourgeois,
Henri Maillardet,
Ferdinand Martin, Jean-Marie & son Edouard Henri Phalibois,
Porzellanfabrik
Rauenstein, Louis-Marie Renou,
Friedrich Adolph Richter,Charles Rossignol, Roullet
et Decamps, Jean Rousselot, Schoenau
& Hoffmeister,
SFBJ, Alfred Schroeder,
Max Schudze, Simon & Halbig, Alexandre Nicholas Théroude, Gustav Vichy, Ungarische, VanHollbeke, Jaques de
Vaucanson, plus others.
Doll
heads will be marked by the bisque head doll maker, other marks maybe
on the key, the mechanical device or have a paper label from the doll maker or
store that sold the doll.
Animated dolls; Adolf Zinner, Gottlieb Zinner
Cymbalier dolls made by
Simpson-Crawford Company.
Musical dolls; Heinrich Schelhorn dolls that sound like a xylophone,
William A. Webber; The Webber
Doll, Zeuch & Lausmann.
Phonograph Dolls;
Max Oscar Arnold,
Madame Hendren Dolly Record,
Emile Berliner gramophone talking dolls, Thomas A. Edison phonograph doll,
Giebeler-Falk Doll Corp Primadonna a phonograph doll,
Jenny Lind Doll Company phonograph doll, Bébé Phonographe Jumeau,
Metal Devices Corp. phonograph doll, J. L. Schilling talking doll; patent by
Jesse J. Warner & Son a wind-up talking phonograph doll.
