Doll Classification by American DollHouses
Doll Classifications:
Dolls have changed over the centuries in how they are made from original cloth and wood carved dolls to their plastic counterparts today. A doll is classified by the construction of its head. For example, a doll is considered vinyl if the head is vinyl while the torso can be made of a different material. It is the material of the head that determines the classification of doll type.
For those with time to kill and who would like to know a bit more about dolls, I have compiled a brief description of doll types in chronological order in time, starting with the earliest to today.
- Cloth: Cloth doll heads, one of the original doll types throughout time, was easy to make.
- Wood: Wood dolls had hand-carved wooden heads and few have survived the test of time.
- Wax: Wax doll heads were the first molded doll heads. However the wax was very fragile and as result few have survived their owner’s love.
- Paper Mache: Paper Mache dolls are dolls made with layers of paper and glue molded. They were more durable then wax dolls.
- China: Bisque or porcelain dolls are commonly called China dolls. They were and still are breakable. Not exactly kid friendly, but very pretty.
- Celluloid: Celluloid dolls were the earliest plastic doll. Unfortunately the early plastic was of poor quality and quite fragile (today the word plastic and fragile seem at odds, but early plastics were fragile and sometime flammable… again, not ideal toy material).
- Composition: Next in the 1920′s-40′s came composition dolls which were considered a revolution in the doll making process because they were durable and could handle the abuse of children.
- Hard plastic: Hard plastic dolls arrived in the 1940′s-50′s and is what we currently have today.