Collecting Vintage Dolls: What is Composition?

I only started collecting vintage dolls about seven or eight years ago, if you don't count my Barbie collection from when I was a kid in the 1970's. I inherited a great collection of Barbies, and still love to see that disproportioned beauty, but over the last few years, my interest has gone more towards vintage baby dolls.

You can start a collection of vintage dolls without a huge investment of cash, especially if you are willing to go to local auctions. I have a collection of about a dozen, mostly composition dolls, and paid about $50 for all of them together. I have also been able to sell a few I found at local auctions for a much higher price than I paid, simply because they were not to my personal taste and interest.

I like composition dolls because they are pretty easy to spot once you know what you are looking for. It also allows you to get a pretty accurate date (at least within a couple of decades) on your doll, just in case you aren't lucky enough to get a doll that has a mark or date on it. They also tend to have lovely baby faces, many have working tin eyes, and if someone took good care of them, you can find them with hands and feet intact. I also like the crazing effect on the "skin" (just a note: some collectors do not like the crazing...to me, it just shows that it was used and not just stored away in tissue paper).

What is composition?

Composition is what the body and head of an era doll is made of, underneath the paint job. It is basically sawdust and glue that has been put in some type of doll-body form and allowed to dry. After they dried, the doll got a very thick layer of flesh-colored paint and then other colors like blush, hair, lips, etc. After this paint job, they got a clear seal coat, usually of varnish, to protect the paint.

Most (not all) of the composition dolls I've seen have molded hair. Sometimes, horsehair or mohair wigs were attached.

If exposed to humidity, a lot of light, or excessive heat, the varnish changes and the paint cracks in very fine lines - called crazing.