Wooden Bowls and Prairie Dolls

Hi my Prims!!!

Today I am going to post on two of my favorite items I love to collect in our home, Prairie Dolls and wooden bowls. They are so fun to find and collect, and throughout the years I have created quite a collection.  I thought I would add a little history on each, so here goes!

For many years, children have played with an assortment of "dolls". They were made from every imaginable substance including wood, clay, corn cobs, plaster, and an array of other materials including cloth. The subject here will be on the dolls that are made from various types of cloth, fabric or fiber. Many of the dolls designed and manufactured in Europe in the 1800's were not intended for children to play with. Their wax, china, or glass heads and bodies were not intended for a child to play with them on a daily basis. These elegant dolls were carefully preserved and treasured by their owners. Many of them remain in collections or museums to this date. However, little girls in colonial America would play with the cloth dolls, drag them around with them by the legs, and sleep nightly with them.


A cloth doll consists of stuffing and a fabric skin. Facial features were painted on with ink or embroidered or stained with dyes available at the time, or in some cases, in primitive cloth dolls there may be no facial features at all. Early dolls were made from cotton fabric, corn shucks, animal skin and other soft materials. Stuffing may have been feathers, straw, leaves, left-over thread and yarn, or cotton from around the homestead.

The design or pattern of the early cloth doll was very primitive and crude, usually consisting of two identically shaped pieces that formed the body. The front and the back were exactly alike before facial features, hair, and clothing were affixed to the doll. Today this crude type of doll is called a Prairie Doll or “Pancake Doll”, which describes the flat construction method. Sometimes, arms and legs were added to a head and body torso. This is still considered a "prairie doll" as it describes the head and face.

Clothing was made from fabric scraps left over from clothing made for the family. These early dolls might also have been dressed in leaves or other materials available outside. Most dolls were made for little girls, and resembled members of the immediate family. Boy dolls were rarely made. The doll's clothes, in early American times, would have been similar to what was worn by women and little girls in those days including under garments, a long dress an apron and a bonnet. Doll stockings and shoes might have been painted or sewn on.

A doll was a precious possession to many small girls in early America. It probably was with her wherever she went, especially at bedtime. Little girls may have had just one doll during her childhood and it was often her only companion besides family until she went to school. Cloth dolls were best friends, good listeners, and guests at a tea party for many children in the not too distant past.

Below are some pictures of some of my prairie dolls!

Another subject I would love to touch upon are wooden bowls.
 
Wooden bowls were made by the early settlers. Most of these wooden bowls were whittled by the pioneers and they made many different sizes. Some wooden bowls were made with a machine called a pole lathe. The larger wooden bowls were made for mixing ingredients to make homemade bread, muffins, and biscuits. The smaller wooden bowls that the pioneers made were for stews and soups.


Today people collect these beautiful pieces and use them as lovely decorative pieces in their homes.

Here are a few samples of what I have in my collection.


                   

 I hope you enjoyed my little history lesson and pics that I posted today.

Mr.Hillcrest and I love the History of all different things, which include antiques, old homes, and our New England heritage. We are excited about this new adventure that we are going to undertake together.

It is going to be alot of work but we are so passinate about it. You won't be disappointed.

Have a great night and remember to love each other and be kind to everyone.

Prim Blessings,

Tricia