Types of Porcelain Dolls

China Dolls

• China dolls were one of the earliest forms of porcelain dolls. The dolls are glazed, and the earliest china dolls have molded hair. Later dolls are bald, with a spot to attach a hairpiece made of hair or mohair. Hair for these dolls was designed to be worn in the popular style of the time, which included sausage rolls, flat tops or the pioneer hairstyle. Later on, china doll heads were sold separately, with the understanding the purchaser would make the doll's body and clothing.

Bisque Dolls

• Unlike China dolls, a bisque or "parian" doll was not glazed. This gave the bisque doll a more realistic complexion. Also unlike china dolls, which were typically brown-haired and blue-eyed, bisque doll can have blond features. There was also a difference in the texture of clay used to manufacture bisque dolls. Many bisque doll heads were manufactured around the time of the Civil War and sold to American merchants for Christmas presents.

Character Dolls

• Character dolls, sometimes known as portrait dolls, are dolls made to resemble well-known historical figures and popular fictional characters. These dolls are often dressed exactly like the character or figure they are designed to resemble. Famous examples of character dolls include Alice from "Alice in Wonderland," Dolley Madison, Mary Todd Lincoln and Marie Antoinette. Later examples include Shirley Temple and the Dionne Quintuplets.

Fashion Dolls

• Fashion dolls actually predate porcelain dolls. During the Colonial period, a fashion doll help women learn what fashionable women were wearing back in their mother country. A fashion doll was dressed in a small version of everything a fashionable women wore, right down to their foundation garments. She also carried accessories that mirrored what fashionable ladies carried, such as a parasol or fancy hat.

Child Dolls

• Before 1850, dolls were made to look like adults. Then, in 1850, the French began to manufacture "bebe" dolls--dolls that looked like children. The popularity of bebes eventually led to the decline of the fashion doll's popularity. A second wave of child dolls, known as dolly-faced child dolls, were manufactured in response to a demand for even more realistic child dolls.