Originally Posted by fleurdelisquilts.com
Half doll? What does a half doll look like? I've seen figurines something like this, but the whole figure.
The dress and ribbon roses are beautiful! I hope you post a picture when she gets the baby done.
Thank you fleur!
Half dolls are usually ceramic or porcelain figurines of the top half of a female body. Sometimes they come with matching legs that peek out from under their skirts. My favorites are the little girls.
They were quite a popular household item for about a century and were used to hide or store items under their skirts. Most commonly they were used as pincushions with their skirt and are sometimes called Pincushion Dolls. They also came in versions to hide powder puffs, whisk brooms, and boudoir lamps, etc. The funniest use to me was that they were used to hide telephones. I guess wives back then felt about telephones the way we hide TVs in entertainment cabinets.
Half dolls vary wildy in price and quality and detail. Things like the degree of detail, "arms away", condition, etc. add to the value. I've seen them go for as little as 3 or 4 dollars to over $1,500. I'm not a collector, so can't tell you much more.
The half doll I used is a commonly found one and I have seen her priced anywhere from 9 to 150 dollars. I tried to find one with nice face painting. The dealer I bought her from said "She is fond of her bubbies" LOL, If you look at the pictures below of others like her you will see what she meant. The ribbon I used on mine made her more demure. I also included a picture of one of the more exquisite and highly detailed versions of a half doll (a few hundred dollars). Hope this answers your question!