Vintage Paper Dolls - The Beginning
By Annette Jensen

In Pioneer America, vintage paper dolls were a valuable treasure since paper was limited. Imagine yourself as child living in a small cabin with very little to play with. You were given a paper doll, maybe two. You know how valuable they are and want to treasure them, so you find a special book and place them between pages or in a special box that you guard always for protection of your treasured paper-doll.

The paper-doll provides a very broad look at the cultures from all around the world. They represent so many costumes, clothing, accessories and many other things of importance for historians. The most obvious were the vintage paper dolls representing royalty and for the children of royalty.

Paper dolls first appeared in the 18th Century in Paris, during the reign of Louis XV. This is also when toys first appeared in this French Society. On the other side of the English Channel, proper British printers printed the paper dolls. They would mix fun and virtue by printing stories with morals and values, on flat sheets of paper, and that comprised the dolls. Vintage paper doll were then produced as a beautifully lithographed full-color collection. They represented no only the famous theater personalities but of the Royal families, which included the House of Windsor and the German Royal Family. It was from that era the paper doll was invented.

In 1866, an artist named Raphael Tuck, was perhaps the best known manufacturer of the paper doll. In December of 1940, Tuck's German Manufacturing facilities were destroyed by a bombing, and with it destroyed all records, plates and documents. But his dolls were easily identified by the trademark and series name and number which was on back of each piece. The trademark style of this company was the set of vintage paper doll costumes and interchangeable heads. He also made some "regular" dolls including Sweet Abigail, Winsome Winnie, My Lady Betty, Prince Charming, the wonderful Fairy Tale series and more. He continued to make the vintage paper doll collections well into the twentieth century.

During the beginning, having paper dolls was a privilege and only the children of the Royalty were able to have them. There were dolls representing actors from the theater, stage, opera and even television. The time when the vintage paper dolls were the most popular was during the 1930's to the 1950's. This could be called the "Golden Age of Paper Dolls." Paper toys were the most affordable toys to have during the depression even though it was of a lesser quality of paper, due to the WWII.

Collecting vintage dolls is exciting and can be done very inexpensively. There are enough varieties to satisfy every collector. Venture back in your memories of sitting down with your paper dolls, playing with your friends. Now you will be able to relive those memories with your vintage paper dolls collection.