A Beautiful Daguerrotype of a Girl with an Early Izannah Walker Doll

I received an email from Carl Mautz, who shared  this beautiful daguerrotype of a girl with an Izannah Walker doll. With Carl's permission I am sharing it here. Carl Mautz is the compiler of Biographies of Western Photographers, and has a long experience collecting early photography, specializing in photography of the west. Carl sometimes sells daguerrotypes on his website at CarlMautz.com. |

Sometimes items featured on this blog may be for sale. Transactions are always between buyer and seller, and neither Dixie Redmond or the Izannah Walker Chronicles are involved in the transaction in any way. 

Now, onto the image, which has this gorgeous Izannah Walker doll in it! 

Daguerrotype owned by Carl Mautz

There's a mystery to solve! 

Carl Mautz's daguerrotype is extremely similar to the daguerrotype featured in the article Edyth O'Neill and I wrote in 2011 for the Christmas edition of Early American Life. Could the above image be Clara Eddy  at a different age?  Could she be Clara Eddy's sister?  They wear the same necklace and hold the same hat and doll. It appears the hat might be for the doll? Or are the girls entirely unrelated and are the items photographer's props of the time? 

For comparison's sake I will repost the first page of the article Edyth and I wrote. 

It is wonderful to see images of early Izannah Walker dolls! Please share any insights you may have in the comments section. 

A Pictorial Directory of Dolls Featured on the Izannah Walker Chronicles

My mission for this blog in 2008 was to create the site I wished existed - a site for doll makers and collectors who love Izannah Walker dolls to see more examples for study. For many years I researched every day Izannah dolls coming to auction, and wrote auction companies asking for additional pictures. At the time there were very few images of Izannah dolls online, as auction companies didn't put their catalogs online. Sometimes I traveled to document dolls coming up for auction and shared those images here. Sometimes collectors have shared images. There are enough images on this blog to assist any student of Izannah Walker dolls. Please scroll through the back posts. Below the thumbnail images link to the posts on that particular doll. 

Read the article written by Edyth O'Neill and Dixie Redmond

Published in the 2011 Christmas Edition of Early American Life

Putting together the pictorial directory will be an ongoing process.. Some great dolls have been featured on this site over the years. Thank you to the collectors, museums, magazines and auction companies which have shared information and images over the years! 

I invite you to look at  reproduction Izannah Walker dolls by Northdixie Designs (Dixie Redmond) at my art blog https://www.northdixiedesigns.com/search/label/Hopestill%20Izannah%20Walker%20Dolls

If you have an antique Izannah Walker doll you are considering selling, please contact me at northdixie@gmail.com. 

   
  

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

Next Five Dolls are Carol Corson's Izannah Collection:  

(Pictures taken by me, courtesy of Withington's)

 

Other Articles, Documents and Other Information

Articles shared with permission from magazine senior editors.

Some of these magazines are now out of print. 

Monica Bessette articles: 

"The Search for Izannah Walker"

Doll News, Spring 1994

More to come...

"Izannah Walker, Godmother of Cloth Doll Makers"

By Susan Hedrick

Summer 1998, Soft Dolls & Animals magazine

Stay tuned! This is an ongoing project to move links from the sidebar to the pictorial directory post.