Lenci Dolls and their Counterparts
Lenci made a few character figures, such as Chinamen, but their main emphasis was on toddler types.
Lenci’s patents refer to felt heads that were slightly starched and wetted by hot steam before they were put under pressure. Several layers of starched fabric, usually backed with buckram, were then pressed in place for added strength.
A number of variations on this basic technique were introduced, as strength was needed when felt was used for molded bodies as well as heads. While the Lenci felt dolls were well constructed, these dolls would not have retained their attraction were it not for the superb clothes.
Their outfits reflect the most fashionable children’s designs of the 1920s and 1930s. No other doll maker handled felt with the aplomb of the Italians, who seamed tiny squares together to create check and tartan effects that would seem an astonishing wasteful of time if they were not so attractive. The largest of the dolls were 34 inches, but most survivors are less than 23 inches.
While the Germans and the Italians created expensive, stylish dolls, in England, Dean’s Rag Book Company developed great expertise in the manufacture of cheap printed cloth figures, though Dean’s did not make felt-faced dolls before 1920. Dean’s felt-faced “A1”-labeled dolls were top of the range.
Others were sold with a seal hanging from a necklace and were marketed as “Doll with a Disc.” Many surviving examples have lost these discs but can be identified by the body-jointing rivets that carry the words “Dean’s Al.” In 1925, felt-faced “Posy Dolls” with molded faces appeared in response to the Lenci products stealing the show at trade fairs.
They were elegantly costumed, with felt-decorated muslin and artful silk dresses. Children’s clothes were bright and colorful in the 1920s and the designs were often adventurous. In the 1930s, felt-faced dolls were marketed as prestige products.
These dolls were expensive showpieces fitted with good mohair wigs and correctly made shoes and socks. Dean’s was quick to see the potential of dolls that reflected current fashion as in their boudoir dolls and popular cartoon or film characters, such as Popeye or Charlie Chaplin.
Chad Valley, established near Birmingham, combined velours, fur fabrics, imitation silks, and woolens to make appealing dolls.
The most collectable Chad Valleys are the Royal series, representing Princess Elizabeth (in two versions), Princess Margaret Rose, and Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra of Kent. The Royal Warrant was awarded to the firm in 1938, so the label “The Chad Valley Co. Ltd. Toymakers. By Appointment to H.M. the Queen” dates a doll between 1938 and 1952, when Elizabeth acceded to the crown.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the other big felt money earner, made in two sizes and with a box for each character, the complete sets highly collectable.
Nora Wellings started work as a designer for Chad Valley but soon set up her own firm in Wellington, Shropshire. In 1926, Wellings registered a patent for a head backed with buckram, into which glass eyes were inserted.
As with Chad Valley, the most successful years were the 1930s, with Wellings dolls selling at exclusive shops and appearing at all the trade shows. Her dolls can be identified by the sewn-on labels “Made in England by Nora Wellings” and by the side-ways-glancing eyes.
The 36-inch dolls had well-painted felt heads and often represented characters such as Britannia, nursery rhyme personalities, an American Indian chief, or Farmer Giles and his wife. The Wellings factory closed in 1960. Unlike Dean’s and Chad Valley,
Wellings catalogs are very scarce and, when found, are not as informative, so dolls have to be dated by appearance or contemporary photographs. J.K. Farnell of London also produced high-quality molded felt doll heads; most are small but made in great detail, their royal characters, for instance, being accurate portraits.
The dolls are marked with a sewn-on foot label “Farnell’s Alpha Toys. Made in England,” with production of felt examples ceasing in the 1950s.
Some of the soft-faced child dolls compete with the work of Chad Valley, though it is the figures of George VI and Edward VIII that have the most collectable value.
The manufacture of felt-faced dolls held less appeal for American toymakers, though Madame Alexander began her company in the 1920s with dolls of this type.
The Alexander Doll Co. soon moved into composition-headed dolls, and any early felt-faced examples are desirable.
Georgene Averill of New York used colored felts for doll clothes during World War I. Various factories in the U.S. experimented with felt, but none were able to approach the style of Lenci and Steiff.
American manufacturers probably realized they had no chance competing in the luxury doll market with firms like Lenci.
Instead they looked for less costly methods.
By the mid-1930s, molded-felt dolls were less fashionable and wealthy parents, who had bought Lenci and Chad Valley dolls, turned instead to the new rubber headed dolls.
Current interest in art doll making has fostered a new generation willing to experiment with felt, and artists such as R. John Wright and Maggie Iacono offer fantastic creations.