Ambrotype with Izannah Walker Doll

Rachael Kinnison of the Lady's Repository Museum and Diamond K Folk Art has offered a rare ambrotype of a girl holding an Izannah Walker doll on EBay.  I am sharing the images here so that Izannah lovers can see them.  Be sure to check out the auction.  

Izannah Walker Doll Ambrotype on Ebay

Visit the auction on EBay:

http://r.ebay.com/Rc0kL4

Izannah Walker Doll Values

I own an old Theriault's catalog from 1980, which has this image in it.  Whoever owned the catalog had written the hammer prices next to the items.  Quite a difference in realized prices over 35 years.

Izannah Walker dolls.  Theriault's catalog, February 23 & 24,  1980. Sold for hammer price $2700?

An 1850's Izannah Walker Doll

Larry of Withington Auctions contacted me to share an Izannah Walker doll they were asked to appraise. The owner had decided to donate this early Izannah with provenance to the Nantucket Historical Society.  With the permission of the present owner, Withington's shared images of this splendid 19-20" example of an early Izannah doll to post on the Izannah Walker Chronicles. 

The present owner shares the history of this doll as follows:  

"The doll was purchased from Izannah Walker in Rhode Island by Elizabeth Pinkham Crosby of 1 Pleasant Street, Nantucket, MA for her niece, Helen Marshall, daughter of Capt. Joseph Marshall and Malvina Pinkham Marshall of the Bark Aurora.  The gift was for Helen’s birthday and sent to Pernambuco, Brazil for pick up.  Letters suggest that it was received before November of 1857 when Helen was six years old.  The doll remained with Helen for the rest of the voyage in the Pacific before returning to Nantucket when Helen was ten years old.

Helen Marshall gave the doll to my mother, Florence Farrier Hall, in 1938 to keep for me, her namesake."

Here are additional images of this wonderful doll.  

Withington's to Auction TWO Izannah Walker Dolls

Withington Auctions will be offering TWO Izannah Walker dolls at their August 21/22 auction.  They sent the following images of the dolls, please contact Withington's for more information. 

The follwing doll measures 16 1/2 inches in height. 

Morphy Auctions Presents Izannah Walker Doll

Morphy Auctions will be presenting this 18" Izannah Walker doll at auction on March 22nd.  

Read more about the auction click here.   

Read the full description of this Izannah Walker doll here.  

The auction estimate is $9,000 - $12,000.  

Izannah Walker Dolls at the New Bedford Whaling Museum

image by Debbie Barlow, courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum
Click the image above to go to the full board of images
provided courtesey of Debbie Barlow and the Whaling Museum

Doll maker Debbie Barlow was able to take pictures of Izannah Walker Dolls at the New Bedford Whaling Museum courtesy of the museum. The museum has given Debbie permisison to share the images online for those who study Izannah Walker Dolls. They've been uploaded at this Pinterest board for your pleasure, courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and via Debbie Barlow's generosity. Debbie makes marvelous creations and her contact is dbstudio@shaw.ca 

More Images of the large Izannah Walker Doll

Today I drove to James D. Julia's auction house to take images of the large 27" Izannah Walker doll which will be auctioned on November 22nd.  I have personally documented over 15 Izannah Walker dolls to date with detailed photographs.   It was interesting seeing a very large Izannah Walker doll, as most of the dolls I've seen have been between 15 and 21 inches in length.  

courtesy James D. Julia, Inc.

The large sized dolls have a totally different feel.  All images are copyright Dixie Redmond 2013,  courtesy of James D. Julia, Inc. 

Description: 

An interesting story accompanies this doll. A gentleman from Rhode Island brought this doll to the Julia offices. He told us that his late wife rescued this doll from a trash heap in their neighborhood some 20 years ago. Extremely attractive hand painted cloth doll made in Central Falls, RI circa 1860 with one piece head and upper torso with all molded and painted features having wonderful detail to the ears and three dimensional molding to the eyes. She has short brown painted hair with four ringlet curls draping in front of the exposed ears, well molded eyelids and dark blue eyes with highlighted irises. The entire body is covered with stockinet and the hands and lower legs are also molded and painted cloth in a manner similar to the painting of the head. As is typical with these larger models she has the rarer bare feet with separately stitched toes. SIZE: 29" (73 cm). CONDITION: Some possible, very aged enhancement to lip coloring. Shoulder plate shows aged paint touch up to shoulder plate although black light inspection does not show these discrepancies. Further black light inspection reveals no touch up to facial features, head, or other body parts. Both ankles have been damaged at some point in the past and have been reinforced with old cloth.

courtesy James D. Julia, Inc.

Her body shape is very interesting, with a narrower waist than many Izannah dolls have.  It kind of reminds me of Queen Ann doll bodies in shape.  

image courtesy James D. Julia, Inc.copyright 2013 Dixie Redmond

image courtesy James D. Julia, Inc.copyright 2013 Dixie Redmond

image courtesy James D. Julia, Inc.copyright 2013 Dixie Redmond