A very rare Bazzoni wax-headed doll

Details

A very rare Bazzoni wax-headed doll
with fixed blue striated eyes, open/closed mouth with four moulded upper teeth, inserted long light brown hair set in ringlets, the cloth body with wax arms and legs in original elaborate striped organdy frock with pink silk ribbon trim, horsehair and straw hat with cream and pale blue silk ribbons, underclothes, socks and dark blue kid slippers - 25in. 64cm. high, with label on body reading A. Bazzoni maker; and a photograph and silhouette of Sophia Baddeley, the original owner, circa 1850
See Illustration

Provenance

Sophia Baddeley was born Sophia Lloyd in 1847 and married William Baddely in 1881. She had two sons, William and Ronald and died in 1892. The pictures show her at an age when she would have been likely to have played with the doll.

Lot Essay

Bazzoni was the maker of the talking dolls and advertised that he was the only maker of such dolls, one of which was sold in these rooms in May 1993. He is probably the talking doll maker interviewed by Henry Mayhew in his London Labour and the London Poor published in 1851

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