328 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1913 



Dolls of All Times 



By Laura B. Starr 

 Photographs by T. C. Turner and others 



HIS history of dolls reaches back to remote 

 antiquity, and even the derivation of the 

 name, far more recent than the origin of the 

 doll custom itself, is shrouded in mystery. 

 There is a pretty legend to the ef- 

 fect that the word "doll" is an 

 adaptation of the name Dorothy, from Doro- 

 thea — St. Dorothea, who was well-beloved and 

 whose namesake a little girl of olden times was 

 thought lucky indeed to be. 



A French story has it that pupee, the French 

 name for doll, was derived from Poppaea, the 

 name of wicked Nero's equally infamous con- 

 sort, a derivation suggested by the chronicle of 

 how one Pursello Grivaldi, an Italian, brought to 

 Paris from Italy, a wonderful collection of effigies 

 in miniature of the ancient Roman Emper- 

 ors and Empresses, in which waxen gather- 

 ing of bygone great Poppaea was decidedly 

 the most attractively costumed, and Queen 

 Isabella, consort of the poor mad 

 King, Charles the VI, ordered the 

 dolls brought to court, where they 

 became immensely popular, and 

 the Poppaea one so struck the 

 King's fancy it was retained for 

 him. 



However all this may be, every 

 people has had dolls for the little 

 ones to play with since the world began — really began, for 

 how could there be a beginning without a doll time ! Never- 



An English doll of 



theless, to look at dolls from the right point of view, and the 

 one which has led to their being collected and studied, as the 

 writer herself has had the joy of doing, one must disabuse 

 his mind of the idea, born of tradition and a knowledge of 

 the dictionaries, which may tell one that dolls 

 are merely "toys for children." While this is their 

 most important function to-day, it has not always 

 been that alone. My researches confirm the 

 theory that dolls were invented for and first used 

 in religious ceremonies. Beyond the fact that they 

 were used in India in the religion that preceded 

 Brahmaism, I have not been able to go. Neither 

 have I been able to discover the exact manner in 

 which they were used at the time, but the probabili- 

 ties are that they represented some of the several 

 gods that it was thought necessary to incorporate 

 in a successful religion at that date. It is 

 possible that they were used jn a similar 

 way to the Katchima or God-dolls of the 

 North American Indians of to-day. These 

 dolls are made by special men of 

 the tribe, held sacred and used for 

 a week in certain ceremonies, and 

 then turned over to the children, 

 not only for their amusement, but 

 to further their religious educa- 

 tion. Here is an interesting ques- 

 tion for the collector of an archae- 

 ological turn of mind. Just when 

 the early East Indian dolls became the property of the chil- 

 dren it is difficult to say, as the sources flow but feebly. 



penoc 



Esquimaux dolls 



Russian dolls 



