Anyone familiar with the real Hitty doll knows that she has a wooden body with feet carved like boots and painted black. No one knows exactly where or when she was carved, but some people claim that dolls with similar boots have been found and dated to the mid-19th century, not 1827, when she is supposedly carved in the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by a traveling peddlar. I believe this may upset some die-hard book lovers. However, for me it is simply a fascinating mystery!
In 2021, I purchased a small doll on ebay. She is only 6″ tall. She has a shoulderhead (meaning the head, neck and shoulders are all one piece) of papier mache, but her body is cloth, and her arms and legs are made of wood. What most intrigues me is that her wooden feet are carved just like Hitty’s! And they are painted a beautiful shade of cornflower blue.
I named her Kitty, and she is the inspiration for the doll in my story, A Tale of Two Hittys, although the ficitional version of Kitty is carved all from wood. Here is a comparison of both Kitty and a Michael Langton resin Hitty, which was cast from an exact replica mold of the original Hitty doll. See the similarity between the boots?
Does anyone know more about dolls with boots like these? If so, please contact me. I believe the dolls were made in Germany. I have seen a few other examples of dolls with paper mache heads and similar feet, but most of them are larger dolls. I completed a makeover of a 7.5″ doll, who I named Georgina (see Georgina’s Makeover.) Also, Julie Old Crow has pictures of “Hitty Sisters” that have turned wooden bodies and feet of a similar style.
Here is a picture of Kitty’s body. She is stuffed with excelsior – made from pine needles and shredded plants (also known as “wood wool”), and she wears a very old, hand-stitched cotton chemise. The arms and legs appear to be made of a lightweight wood, like pine.
Her hair feels like baby hair, but I don’t believe it is original. It probably was glued on by an owner after losing the original wig. I made her a replacement wig of mohair, which covers and protects her hair. And, of course, she had to have a new dress! Now she looks fresh and sweet again, and she is ready to become my muse for the story!
In 2023, Kitty had the privilege of being scanned in order to make a 3D copy of her head (see Virtual Kitty). That project led to a complete restoration, which you can read about in another post (see Restoring Kitty.)
