Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh Dolls 1916-1920

Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh an artist, first success was from a cast metal statuette called the "Good Fairy", not long after she founded a small doll business in Chicago, IL USA called the Raleigh Doll Company who operated from 1916 to 1920, at which time they were acquired by the Pollyanna Doll Company who operated in Chicago from the early 1920s to about the early 1930s.  Jessie produced light weight composition dolls from a specially developed formula.  The dolls were created to resemble real children, Raleigh used student artists from the Chicago Art Institute to paint the dolls facial features. 

Dolls were 10 1/2" to 22" tall, three types of body construction have been found; 1. all composition socket head and jointed composition body with steel springs or 2. composition shoulder head and lower arm and leg limbs on a jointed cloth body with cloth limbs attached by an embedded metal spring with hardwood plugs or 3. composition shoulder head with a cloth jointed body, cloth upper arms and composition lower arms, and cloth lower legs attached with steel spring joints, sleep or painted eyes, one stroke almost straight across brown painted eyebrows, molded painted hair or wigged, dolls often have a curved hand, thus allowing them to hold an accessory.  The eye lashes of some dolls are painted almost vertically, instead of curved. They made boy and girl dolls and dolly face dolls. The doll clothing was made by home workers, early dolls came both dressed or undressed.

Because of the short time span of this business, few dolls have been found and all their dolls were unmarked, making identification a challenge, however due to their distinctive body construction and the dolls unique look, it shouldn't be hard to tell them from the mass produced, unmarked dolls from this time period.  Early Raleigh dolls were exclusively distributed thru Butler Brothers.

Some Raleigh registered trade name for dolls are;  Baby Petite, Baby Sister, Baby Stuart, Big Mary, Birthday Dolls Curly Locks, Daisy Anna, Dearie, Debutante, Dorothy, Doll O' My Heart, Goldilocks, Jane, Little Sherry, Lucille, Mama's Angel Child, Mammy Jinny, Marjorie, Mary had a Lamb, Mary Quite Contrary, Miss Happy, Peeps the Fairy Doll, Pink Lady, Poppy, Priscilla, Rabbit Lady, Red Riding Hood, Rosemary, Stair Step Family (three dolls), Tiny Tot, Uncle Sam and rag dolls; Sam and Shoe Button Sue.

Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh Dolls 1916-1920

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