While I was perusing the internet looking for children's toys from the renaissance, in conjunction with our readings on renaissance families, I came across an interesting theory.
Illustrated above is Arbella Stuart as a young child. As you can reasonably guess, Arbella was a noble woman who was also considered one of the possible successors to queen Elizabeth I of England. Located in her left hand is a small doll that we can only assume was her favorite. What is interesting about this doll is its clothing. Historians are in agreement that the clothing the doll is wearing is at least 10 years outdated. But how can this be? Surely Arbella's noble family could afford to outfit her favorite play doll with up to date garments. But that's just it. This doll was not originally intended for play.
The outdated clothing on the doll implies that this was actually a fashion doll. A local tailor would have used a doll as a model to create a larger version of the dress that the doll was wearing. This means that when fashions came and went, tailors would give away their obsolete doll models to children who would use them as play things. Obviously dolls have been used as toys centuries before the renaissance era, however these dolls were painfully detailed and wore heavily ornamented clothing of the highest quality. So even though the doll is an age old invention, the dress up barbie doll can trace its history back to 16th century tailors.
Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. Los Angeles: Quite Specific Media Group, 2001. 157-58. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
Dallas, this is a really interesting post. I did not know that dolls were used by tailors to showcase the fashions of the period. It is interesting to note that even the noble child has a doll that is "out of style". One would assume that a noble child would have a doll with recent fashions, via a purchase made by her parents. Yet, this noble child did not have a recent styled doll although one can tell as you mentioned this had to be her favorite, due to its presence in the painting.
ReplyDeletePoor Arabella Stuart, the cousin of King James, died in the tower. This image shows a 23 month child, according to several sources, though I think we'd all agree she looks older. It was painted in 1577 in England. Thanks for posting this excellent post on social history.
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