Paper dolls are figures made of paper or thin cardboard, with separate clothing items also made of paper that could be held over the doll.
The figures can be of a person or an animal.
In the mid-1700s, these types of dolls were already being made in France, but the first manufactured paper dolls were made in 1810 in London, called Little Fanny.
As printing techniques improved in the late 1800s, increasingly luxurious and beautiful editions came onto the market. Victorian young women also wanted merchandise featuring their idols, and so an American company launched a doll set featuring Jenny Lind, a then-famous singer.
Box with paper doll and dresses from Jenny Lind a famous opera singer ca 1850 this image is in the public domain free of © made available by the Cooper Hewitt Collection
These types of dolls were made for children to play with and also as educational materials. From 1930 to 1950, paper dolls were extremely popular, due to the Great Depression and World War II, when materials for other purposes were scarce. In 1898, a box of paper dress-up dolls was released in the Netherlands to commemorate the inauguration of the then 18-year-old Queen Wilhelmina. This allowed children but mainly girls to become acquainted with their new queen, the clothes she wore, and the animals she kept in an interactive and educational way.
In 2001, this was republished as a booklet by publisher Niesje Wolters van Bemmel (ISBN 9056902075).
The Queen Wilhelmina box wit paper dolls © denroncollections
the book from 2001 (ISBN 9056902075).
Info: myinnervictorian.nl
The history of paper dolls
JaneAustin blog on paper dolls Janeaustin.co.uk
Wikipedia
