Antique Victorian Porcelain Doll Heads

The beauty of antique Victorian porcelain doll heads shows the skilled craftsmanship of doll designers of that era in history.

Vintage photo of a child with her Victorian dolls

One of the most confusing aspects of antique Victorian porcelain dolls is the terms used to describe the material of the head. Doll heads are generally referred to as china or bisque, both of which are made of porcelain.

Some doll collectors, and many people who don't collect dolls, refer to all doll heads of the Victorian era as porcelain. Other collectors use the terms china, parian and bisque when referring to the different types of dolls. In truth, all the doll heads are made from porcelain with the following differences.

• Parian doll heads are white with a matte finish. They are made of bisque, or unglazed porcelain, without any added tinting.
• Bisque doll heads are made from unglazed porcelain that has been tinted. The tinting tones used for Victorian dolls are generally pink.
• China doll heads are made from porcelain that is finished by coating it with a shiny glaze.

The dolls manufactured during the years of the Victorian era, approximately 1837 to 1901, are popular with doll collectors for their beauty and often looked upon as true works of art.

China head dolls were most popular between 1840 and 1880, but were actually produced until the 1920s. These exquisite dolls have fabric or leather bodies, and shiny glazed heads with painted hair and features. They are highly sought after by today’s collectors.

One way to tell the age of a china head doll fairly accurately is by the hair style. Generally doll heads that have curls at the neck or the hair is flat on the top with sausage curls around the head were made about 1840. Doll heads that have curls that are very short or have a molded headband were made about 1850. Doll hair that is molded in a chignon style was made about 1860. Victorian doll heads were made to reflect the hair style that was popular at the time the heads were manufactured.

Most of the doll heads of this type were made in Germany. The more well known manufacturers include:

• Alt
• Beck
• Kestner
• Hertwig
• Gotschalck
• KPM Berlin
• Meissen

Unfortunately, there are many of these glazed porcelain doll heads that do not have any maker’s marks. Around 1880 many manufacturers began selling the doll heads separately enabling the doll body to be made by the owner.

The most well known types of antique Victorian dolls are those with bisque heads manufactured in France and Germany. Produced from 1840 until after the First World War, this type of doll increased in popularity significantly around 1860. For the next thirty years fashion dolls were extrememly popular. They represented the ladies of the era, with their elaborate fashions and beautiful hairdos. The wigs of Victorian fashion dolls were made of either mohair or human hair.

Although many of the bisque dolls were produced in France, the doll heads were often manufactured in Germany. Manufacturers of these magnificent dolls include:

• Bru
• Jumeau
• Rohmer
• Gaultier
• Simone
• Huret

First made in England, parian head dolls were quickly copied in Germany. The German manufacturers realized they could get a higher degree of detail working with parian then with glazed porcelain. This allowed them to create doll head molds with elaborate hairstyles.

Several manufacturers of parian head dolls include:

• D.F. Kling
• Kister
• Hertwig
• Dornheim, Koch and Fischer
• Conta &Bohme

• Excellent information on early porcelain china head dolls, including many helpful pictures can be found in the eBay guide Antique China Dolls
• China, Parian and Bisque Greman Dolls:Ca. 1840-Ca. 1900 by Lydia Ritcher contains valuable information and many unusual and beautiful photographs of these exquisite antiques. Many of the earlier porcelain doll heads are represented along with new information associating certain heads to the proper manufacturer.]
• Debra’s Dolls features beautiful examples of antique Victorian dolls]
• An antique bisque doll by Ernst Heubach
• Lily bisque doll
• This Victorian baby by Armand Marseille has a human hair wig.

Each type of antique Victorian porcelain doll head has its own unique beauty and charm. These exquisite playthings from years gone by have become delightful treasures of today.

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