Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article

December 26, 1993
By Helen F. Mitchell
Vigo County Historical Society

Metal doll heads common in 1900s

If you were asked to list materials suitable for making dolls, metals probably would not be included. We think of china or porcelain, composition, vinyl or clot but somehow metals just don’t seem to fit in. Many different metals, however, have been used in doll production for more than a century.

Some of the metals used are tin, pewter, zinc, iron, copper and brass. The metal is heated to a high temperature which melts it so it can be poured into a mold. It is removed after it cools, and the two pieces are sealed together forming the head. Sometimes the metal heads are added to metal bodies which also have been made in molds, but more often they are attached to a cloth body. Before joining the body, however, they are painted and the facial features are artistically added. The weakest feature of the metal doll heads were their inability to hold the paint as you can see in this picture of our museum doll.

She is about 18 inches tall and has a cloth body, including cloth feet. Her lower arms and hands are of composition. The head is marked JUNO in an oval. This is the mark used by Karl Stanfuss of Deuben near Dresden in Saxony. She was made during the early years of the 20th century and was distributed in the United States by Borgfeld Inc. The heads were put on bodies in cottage industries in the United States and Europe.

This tin head has blond, molded and painted hair and brown painted eyes. She is wearing a dress of white cotton with three leaf springs in red. The dress is designed with a yoke and puffed sleeves. The dress and pantaloons are typical of the era in which the doll was popular. This doll mold is pictured on page 338 in Coleman’s Encyclopedia of Dolls. The chipping and loss of facial paint is evident on the doll pictured here and the one in the Encyclopedia.

Karl Standfuss also made celluloid dolls from the same mold and made copies of Rose O’Neill Kewpies and the Bye-Lo Babies by Grace Storey Putman, also in celluloid.

Some little girl in our community enjoyed this doll and probably loved her just as much even after she lost her paint and the features were dimmed. Making doll heads of metal may not be such a bad idea after all.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S Sixth St., is open from 1 t 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

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