Doll dressed by Queen Victoria's eldest daughter sells for £4,000

A wax doll dressed by Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, the Empress Frederick of Germany (christened Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal) was sold for £4,080 at Bonhams in London, as part of its Fine Dolls and Teddy Bears sale.

The Empress originally dressed the doll (estimated at £800-1,200) for a bazaar in London to raise funds for impoverished Germans in the city, circa 1868.

According to Bonhams, it was then bought by the financier Baron von Schroder.

Meanwhile, one of the first wooden dolls ever made (circa 1680) and dressed in the habit of the Carmelite convent at Bethune, sold for £12,000.


The wax doll dressed by Queen Victoria's eldest daughter

The few known 17th century dolls dressed in habits are thought to have belonged to the children of Catholic families, who were sent abroad to be educated.

They would send their doll back to England dressed according to the order they had joined, and to signify that they were safe.

Elsewhere, a 1920s Lenci doll, entitled 'June Bride' and based on the film star Marlene Dietrich, sold for £4,560 against an estimate of £1,000-1,500.

Other highlights in Bonhams' sale included a fine example of a Bru Bebe, circa 1875, sold for £6,600; and a remarkable Noah's Ark, built in Germany in the 1870s.

It auctioned with a complete set of animals, from lions to grasshoppers and realised £9,600.

 

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