Passage 1 - Dolls through the ages

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Passage 1 below.

What is today a simple children's toy has a surprisingly rich history. Dolls have been a part

of humankind for thousands of years. Often depicting religious figures, or used as

playthings, early dolls were probably made from primitive materials such as clay, fur, or

wood.

Dolls constructed of flat pieces of wood, painted with various designs, and with 'hair' made

of clay, have often been found in Egyptian graves dating back to 2000 BC. Egyptian tombs

of wealthy families have included pottery dolls. Dolls being placed in these graves leads

some to believe that they were cherished possessions.

Girls from ancient Greece and Rome offered their wooden dolls to goddesses after they

were too 'grown-up' to play with dolls. Most ancient dolls that were found in tombs were

very simple creations, often made from such materials as clay, rags, wood, or bone. Some

of the more unique dolls were made with ivory or wax. The main goal was to make the doll

as lifelike as possible. That ideal led to the creation of dolls with movable limbs and

removable garments, dating back to 600 BC.

Following the era of the ancient dolls, Europe became a major hub for doll production.

These dolls were primarily made of wood. Fewer than 30 examples of primitive wooden

stump dolls from England survive today. The Grodnertal area of Germany produced many

peg wooden dolls, a type of doll that has very simple peg joints and resembles a clothespin

(a device for hanging washing on a clothesline). An alternative to wood was developed in

the 1800s.

'Composition' is a collective term for mixtures of pulped wood or paper that were used to

make doll heads and bodies. These mixtures were moulded under pressure, creating a

durable doll that could be mass-produced. Manufacturers closely guarded the recipes for

their mixtures, sometimes using strange ingredients like ash or eggshells. Papier-mâché, a

type of composition, was one of the most popular mixtures.

In addition to wooden dolls, wax dolls grew in popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Munich in Germany was a major manufacturing centre for wax dolls. Wax dollmakers would

model a doll's head in wax or clay, and then cover it with plaster to create a mould. Then

they would pour melted wax into the cast. The wax for the head would be very thin, no more

than 3 mm. Some of the most distinctive wax dolls were created in England between 1850

and 1930. One of the first dolls that portrayed a baby was made in England from wax at the

beginning of the 19th century.

Around the same time, porcelain became popular. It is made by firing special clays in a kiln

at more than 2372 degrees Fahrenheit (1300°C), and only a few clays can withstand firing

at such high temperatures. Porcelain is used generically to refer to both china and bisque

dolls; china is glazed, whereas bisque is unglazed. Germany, France, and Denmark started

creating china heads for dolls in the 1840s. These china heads were replaced in the 1860s

by ones made of bisque. Bisque, which is porcelain fired twice with colour added to it after

the first firing, looked more like skin than china did.

In France, the bébé was popular in the 1880s, and it has become a highly sought-after doll

today. The bébé, first made in the 1850s, was different from its predecessors because it

depicted a younger girl. Until then, most French dolls were representations of adults.

Although the French dolls were unrivalled in their artistry, German bisque dolls became

quite popular because they were not as expensive. Kammer & Reinhardt introduced a

bisque character doll in the 1900s, starting a trend of creating realistic dolls.

For many centuries, rag dolls were made by mothers for their children. The term 'rag doll'

refers generically to dolls made of any fabric. 'Cloth doll' refers to a subset of rag dolls

made of linen or cotton. Commercially produced rag dolls were first introduced in the 1850s

by English and American manufacturers. Although not as sophisticated as dolls made from

other materials, rag dolls were well loved, often as a child's first toy.

Dollmaking did not become an industry in the United States until after the Civil War in the

1860s. Doll production was concentrated in the New England region of the United States,

with dolls made from a variety of materials such as leather, rubber, papier-mâché, and

cloth. Celluloid was developed in the state of New Jersey in the late 1860s and was used to

manufacture dolls until the mid-1950s. German, French, American, and Japanese factories

churned out cheaply produced celluloid dolls in mass quantities. However, celluloid fell out

of favour because of its extreme flammability and propensity to fade in bright light.

After World War I, dollmakers experimented with plastics. Hard plastic dolls were

manufactured in the 1940s. They resembled composition dolls, but they were much more

durable. Other materials used in doll manufacturing included rubber, foam rubber, and vinyl

in the 1950s and 1960s. Vinyl changed dollmaking, allowing dollmakers to root hair into the

head, rather than using wigs or painting the hair. Although most dolls are now mass-

manufactured using these modern materials, many modern dollmakers are still using the

traditional materials of the past to make collectible dolls.