No. 18

(Name to be confirmed) - Shirley Lloyd

Antique Reproduction

Details

Artist

Shirley Lloyd (Canada), initials S.E.L.

About this doll

A doll in a ruffled white lace bonnet and a pale pink dress, with brown hair and dark eyes. The back of her head is incised 'SEL', and every reproduction doll in this collection bearing those initials is the work of Shirley Lloyd.

Shirley Lloyd was the mother of the Canadian porcelain doll artist Lynn Harrison. She made dolls to the age of 100 and passed away a few years ago in December. The collection includes several of her dolls (Nos. 24, 25, 26 and 32) and two she made together with her daughter (Nos. 21 and 22).

Background

On a reproduction doll the artist's initials are both a signature and a mark of honesty. They are incised, together with the year, on the back of the head or the shoulder plate while the piece is still unfired greenware. Antique dolls carry no such personal signature, so the initials alone identify a doll as a reproduction.

The making of a porcelain doll goes like this. Liquid clay (slip) is poured into a plaster mold and left to set, the cast is removed and its seams cleaned, and the piece is fired in a kiln at more than 1,200 degrees Celsius. Brows, lashes, lips and cheeks are then painted with china paints and the piece is fired again, several times over, to build up skin tone and expression. Finally the glass eyes are set, the wig glued on, and the joints strung with elastic.

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