Paper Doll overlay

UPDATE: Kwei-lin just sent me the following information:

I do not know for sure what media were used for Gene Maiden's original. However, from the look of it, and from what I've seen of very old paper dolls, I'm almost certain that it would be watercolor. Absolutely not pastel or pencil. You can see brushwork and there's a transparency typical of watercolor.  I call this type of paper doll an overlay because that's what others out here in L.A. call it. It's the kind which has a specific sized format and each panel or oval lays on top of the other, and all fit very well into a box.

Another wonder from the collection of Kwei-lin Lum. This is an excellent copy of a Gene Maiden antique. An androgynous profile, with clothing that is both masculine and feminine. The hat and costume are placed over the profile, each time creating a delightful transformation.

The Golden Age of Valentines

Check out the Merchant's House Museum for an online exhibit about the history of valentine cards.

The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair

 
I'm a big fan of the Antiques column that runs in the Friday New York Times. In today's edition, I learned about a long forgotten poet named Mary Webb; the closing of the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo., with its contents to be auctioned in Arizona and New York within the coming months; and these dolls, created by young women during the Civil War to raise money for wounded soldiers. Their 1864 fundraiser was called the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair.