Dolls in Boxes

Novelty egg doll, 1870-89. Museum no. B.109-1993 (click image for larger version)

Some dolls live in boxes. Many boxes were made with religious or royal themes, and the custom was particularly popular from 1700 to 1880. The Museum has other examples, including a miniature shrine to the Christ child, and a doll surrounded by dozens of flowers made from brightly coloured paper.

The doll seen here is bursting from an egg which would have been filled with sugared almonds. The doll's  head lifts off to reveal a cavity inside the egg, especially designed for sweets. There are two cords trailing from the egg shell which can be pulled to produce a sound like a baby's cry. This would have been a christening or birth gift . Almonds are often given as presents in European countries for births, marriages, christenings and at Easter.

Queen Anne and her children, wax dolls in a display box, 1830s. Museum no. Misc.184-1923 (click image for larger version)

The box with the group of dolls including a woman with a crown, orb and sceptre is labelled 'Queen Anne and her Children'. It is a mystery if this represents the Queen Anne who reigned from 1702 to 1714. The clothing is from  just over a hundred years later, and there are seven other dolls in the group, three of them adults. Queen Anne had eighteen pregnancies, but all her children died as babies except the Duke of Gloucester who died at the age of eleven.