The Acquisitions Table: The Doll and Her Dresses

The Doll and Her Dresses. London: Frederick Warne & Co.; New York: Scribner, Welford & Co., ca. 1870.

Doll and her dressesThis picture book is part of Warne’s Picture Puzzle Toy Books series, in which the young owner is supposed to cut out and paste cutouts of dress accessories and room ornaments to the existing color illustration, filling in the entire picture. In this case, the girl’s pink sash, the doll’s green overskirt, the bird cage on the mantle, and the baskets on the floor are cutouts. Each picture shows the blond-haired girl with her various dolls; the dolls are about three-quarter the size of their mistress and are clearly adult, thus providing the girl with a fantasy life in adult dressing.

Published by

Laura Wasowicz

Curator of Children's Literature, American Antiquarian Society

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