Mandarin’s Son

Mandarin’s Son, Bähr & Pröschild, about 1890. Museum no. Misc.30-1978 (click image for larger version)

Dolls representing people of different nationalities and races became a successful product for English and German manufacturers in the latter half of the 19th century. New opportunities for world travel, and books written by travellers, made people more aware of other cultures.

This doll was made by the German company Bähr & Pröschild in about 1890. He was made with a standard mould used by the company to make dolls based on European children, so his features are not authentic to the Chinese boy he is meant to represent. The only difference to his features are his curved painted eyebrows and long, braided mohair wig. He is wearing a dark blue silk tunic and has an olive green silk jacket. His hat is made from cardboard covered in silk. He wears Chinese-style slippers.

He was part of a collection of dolls owned by a girl called Audrey Denison, who was born in the 1880s. Audrey kept a record of her 'Dolls of Different Countries' in a special notebook, saying where each doll came from, who had given it to her and when. The first entry was for a doll in Norwegian costume which her father gave her in 1885, and the last for a Japanese doll which was a present from Commander Tatsuo Matsumura of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1907. This Chinese boy doll is recorded as 'Dressed by Ah Lay - a tailor who was shot by an Englishman a week after he finished the doll. Tientsin, from Mother and Ah Lay Jan 1890.'