Three-in-One Doll

Three-in-One doll, Doll Pottery Company, England, 1916. Museum no. Misc.2-1973 (click image for larger version)

Multi-faced dolls have been produced since the 1860s. They can help to make the dolls more realistic by showing more than one facial expression or they can show a different side to a character in a story.

This doll is known as the Three-in-One doll as it has three different heads that go with one body. Not only is the doll multi-faced, it is also multi-gendered and multi-racial. Two heads are white girls with blonde hair and the third is a black boy. The doll has two sets of arms and legs - one for the boy and another for the girls. The heads are attached by being pinned or sewn to the stuffed cloth body through the holes in the shoulder plate. The limbs are fastened by cord or thread to the fabric upper limbs.

The doll was made in 1916 in England by the Doll Pottery Company. This was one of the few companies set up in England during the First World War to produce ceramic doll parts when German dolls were not available.