Calvaire Cloth Art Dolls Early 1920s French
Sometime in the early 1920’s an obscure French company by the name of Calvaire made googly eye cloth art boudoir dolls which are unique, oh so delightful and a very memorable looking doll and yes these dolls are also very rare!
Calvaire cloth dolls are 14-14 1/2″ tall, have large molded heads that are covered in flesh colored silk chiffon fabric with raffia like hair in ringlet curls surrounding the face.
Calvaire dolls have huge bulging side glancing stationary glass googly eyes, some with with dusky brown eye shadow and eye shadow on lid, with wispy to the side painted eye lashes. Red dots highlight the inner eye and the pert nose nostrils, closed red painted lips.
The Calvaire cloth cotton doll body is over a wire frame, arms are covered with flesh colored silk with individually wired fingers. Both hands and feet of the doll are disproportionately small compared to the dolls head and body, she has skinny legs and tiny shoes on her tiny feet.
So far we have only seen girl, lady or male dolls that were dressed in theatrical, period or French traditional clothing. Calvaire dolls are marked with a purple label on the body of a ladies head symbol Calvaire Made in France or a cloth label stitched onto an underskirt Made in France in red.
