
Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh dolls painted
or sleep eyes and distinctive vertical eyelashes
Raleigh dolls were 10 1/2 to 24" tall, three types of body construction have
been found;
1. All composition socket head and jointed composition body with
steel springs.
2. Composition shoulder head and lower arm and leg limbs on
a jointed cloth body with cloth limbs attached by an embedded metal spring with hardwood plugs.
3. Composition shoulder head with a cloth jointed body, cloth upper arms and
composition lower arms, and cloth lower legs attached with steel spring joints, sleep or painted eyes,
one stroke almost straight across brown painted eyebrows, molded painted hair
or wigged, dolls often have a curved hand, thus allowing
them to hold an accessory.
Raleigh doll
eye lashes are
painted almost vertically, instead of curved, they made boy and
girl dolls and dolly face dolls. The doll clothing was made by home
workers, early dolls came either dressed or undressed.
Because of the short
time span of
this business, few dolls have been found and all Raleigh dolls were
unmarked, (the cloth doll mark
Comfort is a possibility) making identification a challenge, however due to their
distinctive body construction and the dolls unique look, it shouldn't be
hard to tell them from the mass produced, unmarked dolls of this time
period. Early Raleigh dolls were exclusively distributed thru
Butler Brothers. |