Dark and Moody Early Tintype of Two China Dolls and their Bed British playing cards was used and shows age

was used and shows age

including for the circumference of what read to me like a series of all seeing eyes

perhaps glad to be freed from the dowel that once stuck in his back and held him up to make him dance

and an unusual one as far as I've seen for incorporating pinprick decoration in addition to watercolor

but still sturdy as a rock with all the hinges and latches firmly attached and locking it up tight

Dark and Moody Early Tintype of Two China Dolls and their Bed British playing cards was used and shows ageDoesn't get much moodier than this one, feeling almost like a post mortem of these two dolls! Early photographs of girls with their dolls are not too hard to come by, but much rarer to find portraits of dolls alone, and here a pair, both with painted porcelain heads and porcelain arms, but slightly different from one another (I'd call the one at left the older sister!) And with what looks like a doll bed behind them, which they are leaning up against.