A 16th Century French Fashion Doll

Description

A 19” linen doll, stuffed with lambswool, dressed in linen drawers with blackwork embroidery, chemise, farthingale, silk doublet with “mutton leg” sleeves and garnet buttons, and silk skirt with velvet guards lined in calico.

History

Fashion dolls are intrinsically linked to France, as this country was a leader in fashion.  There is a record from 1396 of Robert de Varennes, the Court tailor of Charles VI, receiving 450 francs for a doll’s wardrobe that he had executed, to be sent by Queen Isabeau of Bavaria to the Queen of England.  As this was a considerable sum for those days, it is to be assumed that the dolls were life-sized dummies, made to the measurements of the English Queen[1].  In 1496 Queen Anne of Brittany ordered a large doll to be dressed for the Spanish Queen, Isabel la Católica, who was famous for her attention which she lavished on her dress.  So high were her standards considered to be, in fact, that the doll was dressed twice over, in an effort to satisfy her[2].

It is reported that Queen Catherine de Medici, wife of French King Henry II, had all eight of her fashion figures in the palace attired in full mourning dress after the death of her husband in 1559. He died 10 days after sustaining a lance wound to the temple in a tilting contest with a French count. He was only 40 at the time, and he and Catherine had been married for 26 years and had seven children[3]. 

In that regard, Leonie Frieda, in her biography of Catherine de Medici, states that the Queen of France was an enthusiastic if eclectic collector.  Among the objects that she lists in Catherine’s collection (including seven stuffed crocodiles hanging from the ceiling) are dolls attired in various types of dress[4].

For her part, Janet Arnold indicates that Queen Elizabeth I seems to have obtained most of her news of foreign fashions from portraits, or by having dresses sent to her from abroad.  It is possible that dolls dressed in the latest foreign fashions were used in the Wardrobe of Robes, although no record of them seems to have survived[5].

A little doll preserved in the Livrustkammaren, Stockolm, dating from around 1585 (Figure 1) is thought to be a fashion doll.  A portrait of Arabella Stuart, dated 1577 (Figure 2) shows the little girl holding a doll, a miniature adult dressed in the fashionable clothes of a couple of years earlier.  It seems likely that this was to convey fashion news and then handed down as a toy[6].

 

Figure 1:  Small doll preserved in the Livrustkammaren, Stockolm, dating from around 1585. Figure 2:   Portrait of Arabella Stuart, dated 1577.

In the 17th century we see the appearance of the Pandoras, fashion figures that were first made at the request of French King Henry IV while he was courting his second wife, Marie de Medici, of the noted Florentine family. She had sent word to him that she would like some examples of French Court fashions. These first two Pandoras were the Grande Pandora, 36” tall, and the Petite Pandora, 30” tall, made of paper mache, the larger in lavish court dress, the smaller in everyday dress. These figures had human hair wigs that could be removed and exchanged depending upon the costume. The figures had no legs, instead from the hips down there were wooden slats around which was wrapped canvas in a cone shape to support the skirt. Arms were removable for ease of dressing. These mannequins were a great success, and were copied and sent among the courts for many years, some of carved wood and some of paper mache. They are very rare to find today. By the 1700’s the term Pandora was replaced by “dolls of the Rue St. Honore.” [7]

Materials, Design and Construction:

  • The Doll:

I made my doll our of linen, and hand-stitched with with linen thread.  For the stuffing I chose lamb’s wool.  Those materials were widely available in the 16th Century, and it is likely that they would have been used to construct a doll like this one.  There is evidence that human hair was used in many of these kinds of dolls but I chose mohair instead, as it is easier to handle.  Moreover, mohair is a type of wool, and wool was widely available everywhere in Europe at the time.  I braided her hair with faux pearls for decoration.  Her face is embroidered with black and brown stranded silk (eyes and eyebrows), and linen thread (mouth). 

Fashion dolls appear to range from life-sized mannequins to the tiny 15 centimeter doll in the Livrustkammaren, Stockolm.  Since I wanted to use this doll as a proof-of-concept for a full-sized gown for myself, I decided to make my doll 19” tall.  A smaller doll would not have allowed for much detail in the dress and underpinnings, whereas a larger doll would have presented me with the problem of storage.  Lynn McMasters has a very nice period doll pattern, which I scaled down from the original 26".   I have christened my doll with the name of Wilhelmina and I will refer to her by that name from here on.

  • The Clothes:

 Drawers and Chemise:  I designed Wilhelmina’s drawers based on the 16th Century Italian white linen drawers from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, [8] as well as the linen chemise, which ended up being a hybrid between the pattern featured in The Tudor Tailor[9] and Mistress Grace Gamble’s Elizabethan Chemise (as published in The Oak[10]).   Both are made out of lightweight linen, and hand-stitched with linen thread.  The drawers feature tiny blackwork embroidery in black silk.

Farthingale:  The pattern for the farthingale was designed after Juan de Alcega’s, as featured in the “Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589”[11].  I chose a gold-colored bridal satin which, although polyester, gave me the look and structure necessary for such a garment.  I did not pick silk satin, as the price of pre-dyed silk satin is very high and the availability limited (but it would have been nice). 

For the guards, I used a deep burgundy wool felt, and I used faux whalebone for the hoops.  In period, willow would have been used, but I had the plastic boning at hand, and it worked rather well.   The entire piece has been hand-stitched.

Skirt:  Again, Alcega to the rescue.  I wanted to have a structured look, compatible with the French silhouette of the late 16th Century.  For that, I used Alcega’s pattern No. 58, which is a kirtle of silk for a woman[12].  Because my full-size gown will be made in mulberry silk charmeuse, I decided to use the same material for Wilhelmina’s outfit.  And because charmeuse is too light and slinky to give me the structure I wanted, I lined it with pink calico.  I used matching cotton velvet for the guards, and used size 0 hooks and eyes to close it. Like the other pieces, this one has also been hand-stitched.

Doublet:  I designed the doublet based on the Princesse de Condé drawing by Clouet (Figure 3).  The doublet I redacted from Alcega’s pattern No. 14a[13], and the sleeves from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion[14].  I had to re-design the sleeve-cap in order to get the “mutton leg” effect as depicted in the portrait.

Figure 3:  Princesse de Condé, Drawing by Clouet.

 

The outside shell is made out of the same deep burgundy silk charmeuse utilized for the skirt.  The inner layers are linen, calico and gold silk dupioni, and it is boned for structure like what was done in that period.  An example of a boned female doublet is an extant velvet doublet of c. 1585, preserved in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg.[15]

For the boning, I used broom bristles.  Reeds would have been used in period, and broom bristles give a very similar effect.  The sleeve-caps sport a light padding of lamb’s wool in order to achieve the necessary puff for the “mutton leg” look.  The tabs are put together and bound in the inside with white linen bias tape. I used garnet beads for buttons and Japan gold for the button closings.  The doublet closes with size 0 hooks and eyes.

Finishing Touches:  The hair was made out of light brown mohair, which was stitched to Wilhelmina’s head and styled accordingly.  I used a hank of straight mohair for the base, and braided mohair for the details.  Bridal faux pearls were braided into her hair for effect.  The face was embroidered in silk and linen, and I tried to stay true to the little faces from the Livrustkammaren and the Arabella Stuart dolls.

Wilhelmina in Various Stages of Construction

Wilhelmina gets a chemise.

And drawers!

Now she has a farthingale. 

She looks a bit short, because the doll-base was rather flimsy and she kept sliding down under the weight of the farthingale.  I fixed it when I got a different base.

(But she's still bald as an egg at this stage.)

Detail of Wilhelmina's doublet front and back.  Look at her nifty hairdo!
 

 

[1] Fraser, Antonia, Dolls.  Octopus Books Limited, 99 Grosvenor Street, London, 1963, p. 30.

[2] Ibid.

[4] Frieda, Leonie, Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France. Fourth Estate, HarperCollins Publishers 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 2003, p.290.

[5] Arnold, Janet, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d.  W.S. Maney & Son LTD, Hudson Road, Leeds. 1988, p. 157-158.

[6] Ibid.

[7] http://members.aol.com/maryidolls/history.html

[8] Arnold, Janet, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d.  W.S. Maney & Son LTD, Hudson Road, Leeds. 1988, p. 209.

[9]  Mikhaila, Nynia, and Malcolm-Davies, Jane, The Tudor Tailor, BT Batsford, Bramley Road, London W10 6SP.  2006, p.57.

[10] http://www.houseffg.org/resources/Elizabethan_Shirt.pdf

[11] Alcega, Juan de, Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589. Costume & Fashion Press, New York – Hollywood.  1999, p.49.

[12] Alcega, Juan de, Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589. Costume & Fashion Press, New York – Hollywood.  1999, p.44. 

[13] Alcega, Juan de, Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589. Costume & Fashion Press, New York – Hollywood.  1999, p. 23.

[14] Arnold, Janet, Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c.1560-1620.  Drama Book Publishers, NY. 1985, p.21.

[15] Arnold, Janet, Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c.1560-1620.  Drama Book Publishers, NY. 1985, pp.106-108.

 

Bibliography:

Alcega, Juan de, Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589. Costume & Fashion Press, New York – Hollywood.  1999. 

Arnold, Janet, Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c.1560-1620.  Drama Book Publishers, NY. 1985. 

Arnold, Janet, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d.  W.S. Maney & Son LTD, Hudson Road, Leeds. 1988. 

Fraser, Antonia, Dolls.  Octopus Books Limited, 99 Grosvenor Street, London, 1963. 

Mikhaila, Nynia, and Malcolm-Davies, Jane, The Tudor Tailor, BT Batsford, Bramley Road, London W10 6SP.  2006. 

Frieda, Leonie, Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France. Fourth Estate, HarperCollins Publishers 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 2003. 

Lynn McMasters Webpage: http://www.lynnmcmasters.com/

Mary Isabella Dolls Webpage:  http://members.aol.com/maryidolls/history.html 

 

Back