Americana & Folk Art

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I love milliner's heads!!  These folk art masterpieces are usually French and made between 1820 to 1870.  (There are later ones--in fact some are still made today--but 1820 to 1870 is the heyday and the most desirable).  The earlier ones have painted features while after 1850, the eyes and mouth are usually printed, pasted and then painted.  Some have kidskin, padded heads so that dressmakers could pin their hats without damaging the papier mâché head.  They usually have hollow heads with a hole cut into the back of the neck so that the milliner could store scarves and such things used in dressing the windows.

This 14" tall lady is lovely, folky, and very unusual in that she is possibly American.  Her paper lining includes a Boston newspaper dated 1863.  Whether the newspaper is original to the lovely lady or used for a later repair is hard to tell because these milliner's heads were used on a daily basis as shop displays and the shop-keepers repaired them as needed throughout their useful lives.  This lady has had her share of repairs and restoration.  Blacklighting shows inpainting of skin color on her forehead, around her eyes (but not the eyes themselves) above the lips (but not the lips themselves) and in the front of her neck area (from neck to dress line) and around the top of her dress line to her proper right.  The scuff to her nose does not show fluorescence under blacklight meaning it was likely an early scuff and repair.  There are two patches to her dress and a few areas of cracking paint that is a bit unstable.  I think she can be wrapped carefully so that the paint is not further damaged, but then she needs to be put on display and left alone but for some very gentle dusting with a soft brush or she needs some work gluing the paint down.  If you are a dealer and plan to take her to shows, I suggest you plan on having some restoration done to her before repeated packing and moving of her.  But she is lovely, early, she has beautifully modeled hair (textured with paint).....and she is roughly half of the going price for a 19th century milliner's head!  Have you been wanting one?  Grab this one because my recent trip has only reinforced my thinking that these lovely rare milliner's heads are escalating in price faster than most other items I sell!

(#4086)     $1450

Newspaper says "Boston, Saturday, September 12, 1863

Above date appears to be the masthead which has an eagle clutching an American banner (this is possibly another piece of paper and not the newspaper masthead).