Hello All,

My Aunt has just passed on an English wax doll to me that belonged to my grannie.  My grannie recieved the doll from her grandmother's friend and in a letter that is with the doll she says it was originally bought in 1832.  The doll is modelled after Princess Charlotte of Wales(1797 to 1817), daughter of George the 4rth of England.  The doll is about 24 inches tall, with wax head and shoulders and a cloth body that is supposed to be horse hair.  Her arms and hands are made of flesh coloured kid leather with tiny, separated fingers.  Her clothes appear to be the original ones, all handmade with incredibly small stitches.  The wax face and shoulders have cracked over time, unfortunately, and she is so delicate that I'm afraid to take her clothes off to look for a maker's stamp on her body.

I'd like to know how rare this doll is and if anyone has some tips on the best way to preserve this doll properly, I'd love to hear them.  Has anyone heard of a similar doll to this one?  Is it possible for it to be as old as the letter states?  Most of the wax dolls I've seen on the internet have been from abouit 1850's and on.  Comments anyone??

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