A doll named Charlotte

This doll belonged to Charlotte Elizabeth Davis (1861-1939), born in Islington, London, the daughter of an innkeeper. Charlotte married Hermann Hicks in 1882 and in due course the doll was given to her eldest daughter, Dorothy Charlotte Hicks, born in London in 1883. Dorothy herself married Cecil Jolly in London in 1907 and the doll soon embarked on a series of sea voyages as Dorothy and her husband went first to India, where Dorothy’s own daughter Alison was born in 1909, then to Toronto, Canada, where her mother had settled, back to England in 1916, and finally to Australia. Charlotte the doll has a wax head, wax arms and legs and a cloth body. She has a wardrobe which includes a finely pleated and piped cream silk dress, knitted cotton socks and black leather shoes; a white cotton dress and an underbodice, drawers, chemise, petticoat, and an apron, two bonnets and a silk shawl – a young girl’s exemplar of the dressmaking arts.

Photographs: Jamie North, 2013 & Jenni Carter, 2010
Gift of the late Mrs Alison Noonan and Dr Anne Noonan, 1989