Thankful, An Izannah Walker Doll

This beautiful and interesting Izannah Walker doll has made a home with Edyth O'Neill. Edyth has graciously shared images for Izannah Walker Chronicles readers. She has named the doll Thankful. Thankful is 18 inches tall, and has lost her body covering, so you can see the details of construction for the body and attachment of limbs. We love to see Izannah dolls in any condition for this reason! Thankful has a beautiful, settled face, and gorgeous eyes, and such a sweetly painted mouth. Thankful has longer legs than many Izannah Walker dolls do, so this makes her unique. Was she was a special order for a tall girl?  Visit Edyth's blog to see more wonders.

Withington's to Auction Izannah Walker Doll with Provenance

Withington's will be br offering the following Izannah Walker doll at their November auction. 

The doll and accessories are described in this way: 

17” Izannah Walker Central Falls, RI, stockinet pressed head, painted facial features, black/brown spill curls, applied ears, painted black lace boots with red trim, muslin body (possibly recovered), (nose rubs, wear spot to back of head, left hand repair, wear to facial features, neck touchups), early antique blue polka dot dress,  with early turned leg doll chair with worn rush seat, dome top strap trunk with antique clothing & accessories, provenance purchased from Jeannette Fink 1984, originally a gift to Mary Cornelia Talbot 1865, born Nov. 7 1862 in Providence RI. (as noted in small calendar & notes) also small wood bucket made for Mary Talbot at 1876 Philadelphia Centennial"

What Would You Give Izannah Walker for Her Birthday?

In 2008 I did a Happy Birthday post for Izannah about what I would give her for her birthday.  It's interesting to think about. What technology or item do you think Izannah would have used that we have today?  What would you give her on her birthday?

Had Izannah had the same opportunities as a man would she have made dolls? Or would her creativity and invention oriented mind have gone in a different direction?

Happy Birthday, Izannah!  In the midst of constraints you created timeless beauty.

Izannah Walker Doll Listed on EBay

A 17" Izannah Walker doll has been listed on EBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-and-authentic-Izannah-Walker-cloth-doll/163642468970?hash=item2619d9ea6a:g:k0MAAOSws0ZcrVdl

How Was Izannah Walker Influenced by Other Types of Dolls?

Recently I was looking in my workroom and found a little box of china heads I had purchased on EBay some years back.  I purchased the group lot because one head in particular reminded me of a particular Izannah doll I had studied closely when it was at Lucy's Doll House. When I pulled the little China head out to study it again I was struck by the similarity again.  I wondered if Izannah used China dolls as her models for some of her dolls?  We know that she set out to make a softer doll that wouldn't hurt a child if she fell on it, as could have happened with china dolls. This is mentioned in her patent.

So I sent the question off to my friend Edyth O'Neill.  She has collected dolls for many decades and I knew she would have an interesting perespective.

Edyth's reply:

"If working from a generic child, we all have a common human starting place. Germany being the doll maker for the world in the mid 19th century, German dolls surely would have been an influence on Izannah’s dolls. As we know Izannah was an inventor and a designer (of stoves!) she certainly may have had basic sculpting skills if needed. How similar is the Ruben Bates mold? (not very to me). There are many different Izzie heads, they may have been molded after or directly from many sources. The artistry lies in her design of the doll, its body its paint job, its concept if you will. Which face or faces she took off from is not a big question to me. As you have noted, some of the English woodens with heavy lidded eyes remind you of Izannah’s work, many dolls are bound to have a lot in common, just being a child’s head. Other than totally off the wall stuff like swirling a holey bucket of paint over a canvas, there is little in art not influenced by other art before it. When designing a new car we don’t re invent the wheel as it is said. We do not see in Izannah’s dolls the same thing as the Darrow being molded after a certain identifiable parian head, and the linen heads molded over identifiable German chinas and other such exact copies, or Emma Clear reproducing dolls. I do not think there is clear proof yet that Izannah used other dolls directly, but if so, no matter to me. What she made of them was a new thing."

In that, Edyth and I agree.  Even if Izannah copied a china doll exactly, she transcended the Original design with her methods.  Food for thought.

How Many Dolls Did Izannah Walker Make?

Over the years my friend Edyth O'Neill and I have discussed how many dolls Izannah  might have made in her lifetime.We discussed this when we were working on  our article on Izannah Walker dolls.  Surely it was more than 500. Today in the MAIDA Dolls Group this topic came up again. If Izannah began making dolls in the 1840's and continued through the 1870's that was a span of more than 30 years.

If you figure one doll made a month for 30 years, then that alone is 360. These are not simple dolls. If Izannah had an assistant making bodies and limbs, then that would at least double the output. So then the number of dolls made is closer to a thousand. If she had more than two assistants, and if she had more than one person painting, then we are talking 2000 dolls made or more. But there is SO much we don't know! We know she was an inventor, and dolls were not her only focus.  

The number of helpers and assistants is really key.  Some parts of doll making can be done by non-artists. Did Izannah approach her doll making by having others make arms and limbs and torsos in a piecework way? There is surely a skill involved with sewing and stuffing dolls.

This brings up the question of where artistry begins and ends. Izannah, having an engineering brain, likely would have been able to design the dolls so that pieces of it could have been done by any competent seamstress, as sewing skills were part and parcel of daily life in the 19th century.

There is so much we do not know.

Izannah Walker Doll Boots

Izannah Walker Doll Eyes

Doll Collectors of America Izannah Walker Dolls Slideshow

Some content is timeless. I had reason to look again at the Doll Collector's of America Izannah slideshow , so thought I would repost this 2012 post. DO click through to view it. 

Also, Antique Doll Collector has begun selling PDFs of back issues. So if you missed this issue, you can purchase a digital version~ Dixie 

The August 2011 issue of Antique Doll Collector magazine featured a display of Izannah Walker Dolls for the 75th anniversary of the Doll Collectors of America (DCA).   

The magazine is worth buying, because there is a lot of information about the individual dolls featured in the article.   There is also a slideshow of Izannah Walker dolls from the DCA reunion at the following link. 

DCA Izannah Walker Doll Slideshow

Courtesy of Monica Bessette: Pictures of Ella Hawes' Izannah Walker Doll

In doing research for her book on Izannah Walker, Monica Bessette contacted the friend who owned Ella Hawes doll to see if she could use her doll's story. As will sometimes happen in life, a question will have more than one answer. The initial question led to Monica's purchase of the doll once owned by Ella Hawes so many years ago. Monica says:

"This doll is the one featured in my article "Walker Dolls: A Family Affair" originally owned by her grandmother, Ella Hawes. Ella was born in 1861 in Virginia, but was sent north to Attleboro, MA (about 5 miles or less from Central Falls) just before the Civil War. Her mother had died, and her father sent Ella and her brother up to live with his family, along with the coffin containing his wife and youngest daughter, who had both recently passed away, to be buried in the family plot.
I've included a few photos of comparison between my first doll, Joy, and my new doll, Ella. Joy is 18" and Ella is 16". The stockinette used on Ella is a much lighter weight and smaller weave. Ella is complete with both hands and feet, but one hand is unattached." 

Enjoy the images below. Thanks, Monica, for sharing! I'm looking forward to reading Monica's book!

For fun, Monica shared a comparison 

of her two Izannah Walker dolls.

How alike, and yet different they are!

Izannah's Imagined Journal - Entry 1

This blog began in 2008. This post was written on January 7th of that year. I thought it would be fun to re-post some of the early blog posts. When I began this blog, it was on a whim on New Year's Day. I thought it would be nice to create the online resource I wish existed. Since that time, social media sites have come to the forefront and blogs have taken a back seat. But there is something to taking a deep dive on a subject, and this blog represents 10 years of study.  I put the blog archive back into the sidebar so visitors can search through.  Wonderful images of Izannah Walker dolls have been provided by some wonderful people for the inspiration of modern dollmakers and those who collect Izannah Walker dolls. 

This post about an imagined Izannah Walker journal was fun to write back in the day.  

Plan for Ben Franklin's Parlor Stove

It's interesting how these people go on and on about my dolls, as if that's the only thing I ever did. Well, I am proud of them, and it is amazing that 150 years later they are still going strong. I wonder what my nieces and nephews did with my molds and such? Wouldn't those go for a pretty penny in today's market?

What these people don't know is that I was not only a dollmaker - I was an inventor. The dolls grew out of the inventing. The phrases "what if" and "why" and "I wonder" were always rattling around in my head. And it seems like the answers to questions were often held outside of a woman's realm. But that didn't stop me, no sir.

And I'll grant you that while many men have marbles for brains there have been a few who had marvels for brains. Take old Ben Franklin, for instance. Now there was a man who thought like a woman! Asking the question "What if the fireplace were in the middle of the room?" is pure genius.

Back to the dolls...if the little girl down the street hadn't fallen on her china doll and broken it I might not have thought to make a different kind of doll. But she brought it down to me, jagged edges and all, saying "Miss Izannah, you're the smartest woman I know, ma'am. I bet you can fix this." And so I did. But it made me ask the question, "What if a doll had a hard middle and a top layer of batting and fabric?"
I bet a man thought up the idea of making a doll out of china...

(This journal entry is purely fabricated by Dixie Redmond, 2008)