As their importance grew, the Pandoras came to be known as poupees de la Rue de Saint-Honore’, or even les grands courriers de la mode, under which title they were invoiced as having arrived at Dover in 1764. The usefulness of making the Pandoras life-size became apparent, for it was possible for customers not only to copy the clothes, but also to fit the actual dolls’ clothes onto themselves, in rather the same way as model dresses today can be sometimes bought directly from French couturiers without fittings, after having been displayed for a season in the dress show.
In 1788 a Parisian milliner, Madame Eloffe, supplied one of her customers with a life-size doll in Court Dress. Rose Bertin, milliner and modiste to the Queen Marie Antoinette, was commissioned to supply a doll for New Year’s Day for Madame Dillon’s little daughter, of which she has left us a full description in her account books: ‘It was a big doll with springs, a well made foot and a very good wig, a fine linen chemise; silk stockings and a long well boned corset’. She also gave a list of the doll’s ball dresses, her gowns of gauze and brocade, muslin and lace, and her caps and plumed hats.
Marie Antoinette herself used Rose Bertin to dress up dolls in the latest fashion for her sisters and her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Nor did the French Revolution put an end to the fortunes of this illustrious modiste: she set up in business in London for a while, in order to serve her old clients among the emigres, and her fashion dolls continued to circulate to the other European capitals, as far away even as St Petersburg.
French Fashion dolls were not the only ones to adventure across water: throughout the eighteenth century, native English Fashion dolls also crossed the Atlantic to popularize English fashions in America, as we know from advertisements in the New York and Boston papers of the time. An advertisement in the New England Weekly Journal of July 12, 1733, reads: ‘At Mrs Hannah Teats, dressmaker at the top of Summer Street, Boston, is to be seen a mannequin in the latest fashion, with articles of dress, night-dresses and everything pertaining to woman’s attire. It has been brought from London by Captain White. Ladies who choose to see it may come or send for it. It is always ready to serve you. If you come, it will cost you two shillings, but if you send for it, seven shillings’. In 1796 Sally McKean wrote to her friend Dolly Madison: ‘Yesterday I went to see a mannequin which has just come from England to give us an idea of the latest fashions’.
Why is is that I can see Marie Antoinette dressing little dolls up in the latest fashions and having a mini parade in her a Chambre Privée de la Reine?
I love how Susan is bringing the art of Pandora Dolls back to life. Every piece of clothing is researched and then re-created using the same techniques of the time period. I felt a connection with this Pandora doll since I’m also a seamstress!
c. 1740
One-of-a-kind
15” High
This charming figure represents a young girl in her play clothes. The back-laced silk taffeta gown is worn over a silk quilted petticoat and covered with a fine cotton pinned apron. Sewing kit and functioning 19th century brass stork scissors are tied to the figure’s waist with silk ribbons as seen in the portrait. Embroidered blue cotton cap with vintage lace over flax wig. Antique glass bead necklace with silk ribbon tie. Blue kid shoes with leather soles and solid brass buckles are worn over white linen stockings. Hand-blown brown glass eyes. Inspiration: Girl with Shuttlecock, Jean-Baptiste-Simon Charding, c. 1740.
Look at her charming little face. So delicate and lovely!
One-of-a-kind
c. 1790
16” High
The stripped blue silk pierrot is trimmed with black silk fringe, vintage white embroidered cotton ruffle and vintage flowers. The petticoat is made from a fine vintage floral embroidered cotton and is worn over a lawn petticoat, shift, linen stockings and tied silk garters. The modesty (scarf) is silk chiffon. The shoes are black kidskin with brown leather soles.
Also included with this figurel is a large brimmed black silk taffeta hat trimmed with blue silk ribbons and vintage flowers, a classic overstatement that was fashionable at the end of the 18th century.
The intricate sausage-roll hairstyle is created in blond mohair. Vintage pearls dangle from just below the ears and the glass eyes are blue.
(Source: susanparrisoriginals.com)
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