Pretty Jane...

   Jane is one of my early girls here~ she is a c1820 Mache by Andreas Voit.  She has the most wonderful serene expression, and is all original in her presentation. She has pupiless dark brown glass eyes, and painted on pate that would have once been covered by an elaborate wig

   She has a fully articulated kid body, entirely hand stitched and stuffed with horsehair. Here you can see her knee joints

  As with most dollys this olde, Jane has been well loved by her darlings~ at one point in time, her kid body was covered with an early knit stocking, still with the owners initials stitched on, and she was given a nicely wadded bumm, most surely to help her sit better

   Her wonderful all original shoulder plate is still attached and has never, nor ever will it be removed from her kid body.  The early sculpts were really quite detailed~ look closely and you will see that not only does she have molded breasts, but also her neck, so much so her clavicle, or collar bones, are visible

  Her upper arms are cloth, with skye blue kid forearms and individually stitched fingers.  One seam is beginning to pop in the back, and her horsehair stuffing can be seen

 To die for! Just look at her wonderful shoes! c1818-24 by construction, in a soft buttery yellow. Masterpieces in themselves

   Over her knit stockings, Jane's original wardrobe consists pantaloons, a flannel chemise for cold winter months...

 pretty sleeveless chemise with microscopic hand stitches so darn small, I couldn't get my new Nikon camera to focus on them even with the macro lens~ I stopped counting at 40, and wasn't to an entire inch yet in stitches

 They fit her like an absolute glove, and I have no doubt they were made for her, but most likely are not her original original clothes as they date c1830

 Her pretty dress, a wonderful print cotton, is also later dating to the 1850s.

To me she has always been precious, but her expression sometimes just one of contentment, not true happiness....perhaps she misses her very first dress she once had, no doubt it was amazing....or perhaps she is melancholy for loosing her pendant she once had attached to her pretty neck ribbon.  Sad for friends long gone....or....perhaps, being a proper early 19th c Ladye, she is longing for something to cover her poor nekkid head!

   I think so!  I let her look thru some of my early fashion plates, and she choose this one, a pretty bonnet from 1814

 A few whips of the needle, and voi~la. Jane's new spring bonnet of silk covered board, trimmed in a pretty blue ribbon to match her blue kid 'gloved' hands

 And  of coarse, to be most fashionable, a curled feather tuft to adorn the crown

  Antique Regency era whitework trims the inner brim, I think Jane Austen herself would approve of~

 Now, to me, this is a happy face!