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Dolls of the Art Deco Era,
1910-1940 by Susanna Oroyan You can’t miss when the book is authored by Susanna Oroyan, doll maker extraordinaire. Susanna has authored several doll making publications and they are all wonderful! She has captured the feel of the Art Deco era through these period dolls. There is a doll on the first page, before the dedication, that is decked out in an Erte’ type black dress with earth tone flora embellishment, just fabulous. The bed (boudoir) dolls are not like any dolls I had set on my bed. I had a wedding dress doll that I set on my bed, wonder what happened to that doll? These dolls are much more sophisticated and a bit strange. The history of the Art Deco dolls and society during this era are discussed with some interesting tidbits added. Dolls include vamps, flapper dolls, little tramps and other rough trade dolls compared to most of the contemporary dolls of today. Several of these dolls have a cigarette in their mouth, heavens and mercy me; they would not get away with that today. At that time smoking was very in style, especially when using a long cigarette holder. The doll collections would be thought of as “decadent” today and “classic” by collectors. The doll eyes are often seductive, lips poutty and poised for a kiss, eyes enhanced with a lot of dark eyeliner, haunting and haughty faces, daring you to criticize them. I found the fabulous 1920’s purse on page 104 superb. There is a doll head on one side of the purse opening. Her body extends down to make the purse. She is wrapped in a fur coat so it is easy to disguise the bag. The bag has a rigid frame and her head is set forward when the bag is opened. There is actually a second purse frame inside the bag. She wears a hat and has a smug facial expression. Don’t you know we would all love to have a purse like this one? The dolls were made of various materials including composition bodies, covered with fabric or wax. Kits were available to add the head onto the body and finish the doll. Some dolls had cloth mask faces to be added to the bodies. They look like they were hand painted and have lots of rouge on their cheeks. There were half dolls as pin cushions with the head and half body made of porcelain. There are several doll examples, all in full color, glamorous and enchanting. Susanna has a talent for searching out doll examples that will tantalize, intrigue and entertain you. You will also want to collect some of these dolls or make replicas. You will find information about the doll makers, designers and the manufacturing companies that made them, picking up tips about recognizing which doll types were made by which company. There are guidelines on pricing, what you should know and look for and what you should expect to pay for these dolls. I had no idea there was so much terminology for doll collecting. There are terms that identify condition or value, terms that identify types and terms that describe construction. If you read through the information, it is pretty easy to remember once you know what it is about. Once you have read all about dolls of this era and look at all the examples, you will find whole section of instructions for making your own dolls, costuming them, choosing a face design with full size face illustrations, adding hair, sewing and types of cloth to use. There are two full size doll patterns to choose from and make your own doll. You will learn to shape the doll, with bent knees if you prefer, shaping and modeling the head and lots of other finishing techniques. You can also make a crazy dog with a full size pattern and it would be easy to adapt to cat figures too. To top it off, you will learn to make tassel dolls which are super easy and very quick unless you want to get into heavy embellishments. These tassels make great toys, lamp and fan pulls and are delightful gifts. I plan to put Susanna’s book right next to all her other doll books published by C&T on my bookshelf. Dolls of the Art Deco Era is a book for collectors, doll lovers and those of you who like those wicked vamp characters of the past! Review by Lydia F Borin |
