If you liked my new peg wooden dolls Comfort and Joy, you will love this spotlight on the peg woodens owned by Queen Victoria. This post includes very special photos that were sent to me by Bill Fifer, and he has given me permission to share them. Bill and his wife, Patricia, were both interested in miniatures. In 1992, they attended summer school at the International Guild of Miniature Artisans (IGMA) in Castine, Maine. Bill and Pat were active Guild members, participating in the summer school for fourteen years. Both became Artisan members of the Guild, Pat for her exquisite costuming and Bill for making miniature furniture. Sadly, Pat’s health declined, and she passed away in 2021. But thanks to Bill’s generosity, I am able to share some of their photos and the knowledge they have accumulated over the years (see “Bill Fifer’s Gift”). Thank you, Bill!
HEADER ABOVE: Vintage photo of Queen Victoria’s Dolls showing (left to right) Lady Gertrude Arnold, The Earl of Leicester, The Countess of Leicester, Lady Morton with child. From the archives of the Royal Collection Trust.
Pat Fifer loved antique peg wooden dolls, and Queen Victoria’s dolls in particular. In August 2002, Bill and Pat made an appointment to view Victoria’s childhood dolls at the Museum of London (now renamed London Museum). You can see pictures of some of the dolls on the website of the Royal Collection Trust in London, England.
NOTE: to see the Royal Collection Trust’s photos online, you can search beneath the headline that says ”Explore the Collection.”
Click here to download a printable version of Bill Fifer’s photos!
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
A book called Queen Victoria’s Dolls by Frances H. Low was published in 1894. The color illustrations by Alan Wright are truly enchanting. The book helped me to identify some of the dolls in Bill’s photos. However, there are a few errors and discrepancies in spelling, which I have noted. You can read a copy of the book for free on Internet Archive. You can also download a copy from Antique Pattern Library. The book expanded on an earlier article published in 1892 in The Strand Magazine. This article featured black and white photos along with descriptions of the dolls and (most helpfully) their catalog numbers.
Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born in 1819. Queen Victoria’s Dolls tells how, as a child, Princess Victoria rarely had companions of her own age to play with, which meant that dolls held a special place in her heart. According to Sir Henry Ponsonby, “Her Majesty was very devoted to dolls and indeed played with them till she was nearly fourteen years old.” There were originally 132 dolls in the collection, but a few have been lost.
Carol Cameron, the current president of the United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC), has researched Victoria’s dolls. She created a video called “Queen Victoria’s Dolls by Carol Cameron 1” on Youtube which has background information on Victoria’s early life growing up in Kensington palace. Carol included an overview of the dolls. She estimated that Victoria dressed 25% of the dolls, Baroness Lehzen (Victoria’s governess) dressed 55%, and 20% were dressed by others.
About half of the dolls represented ladies of the court. Victoria had a long wooden board, drilled with holes for the dolls’ feet, which she could use to practice court presentations and etiquette. Some dolls were imaginary characters. Others were dressed as characters from the ballets and operas that Victoria loved to attend. After a performance ended, Victoria would sketch the costumes and make notes. Later, she and Lehzen painstakingly dressed dolls to represent the desired characters. Victoria also wrote about the dolls in a copy-book, noting the name of each character and who had dressed it. Sometimes she included the date and name of the performance. The dates ranged from 1831 to 1833, when the dolls were finally packed away.
Below is a portrait of Victoria at age 14, painted by Sir George Hayter in 1833. Notice the details of what she is wearing and how similar they are to some of the dolls’ clothing. Her dress is made of white satin with short, puffed sleeves. A ribbon is tied at the waist, and a decorative band encircles the skirt. Her shoes are blue satin slippers.
by Sir George Hayter, 1833.
The 1830’s was a time of changing fashions. Dresses were starting to expand again after the slim silhouettes of the Regency period. These changes are reflected in the clothing of Victoria’s dolls. Many dresses in the collection have enormous puffed gigot sleeves and large round skirts. Others costumes reflect the whimsy of theatrical productions in the early 19th century.
I have my own theory about why Victoria was so attached to her dolls. When I was in my early teens, I spent hours sewing for my Barbie dolls. Many of the outfits were inspired by historical fashions. I believe that Victoria may have loved fashion as well, and dressing the dolls was the perfect outlet for her creative talents. It must have taken a great deal of time and effort to fit and sew such tiny dresses, many of which were trimmed with beads or lace and often had matching hats. I can picture her collaborating with Lehzen on each outfit to create the effect she desired.
Here is another video about the dolls: “Conserving Queen Victoria’s Childhood dolls,” on Youtube’s Historic Royal Palaces channel. In the video, Mika Tamaki, Senior Textile Conservator at the Historic Royal Palaces, talks about twelve of Victoria’s dolls, which were featured in the “Victoria Revealed” exhibition at Kensington Palace in 2012. It is interesting to me how much time and effort was spent conserving the fragile costumes.
Ubiquitous wooden “penny” dolls were manufactured by the thousands in a heavily forested area called the Grödner Tal (or Val Gardena), located in the Alps of Austria and Italy. The dolls’ bodies were all turned on a lathe, and the arms and legs used simple peg joints. Many had a tiny tuck comb carved on the top of the round wooden head. The faces were very crudely carved and painted with haste. But despite the slapdash methods of construction, the dolls have a unique charm that makes them very desirable today.
If you want to own a copy of one of Queen Victoria’s dolls, you are in luck. Charles and Alicia Carver are now producing limited reproductions of some of Victoria’s dolls. On their Victoria Blog, you can read about their creations. They have made reproductions of Lady Gertrude Arnold, Sir William Arnold, Miss Arnold, the Countess of Rothesay with her babies, Monsieur Musard the clown, Marie Taglioni as “Sylphide” the Fairy, The Earl of Leicester, The Countess of Leicester, The Children of Lady Pulteney, and Martha, the housekeeper. They have plans to make even more dolls, and they also sell larger 12” Grodnertal dolls based on Jane Austen’s literary characters.
Before Bill Fifer started making Hitty dolls, he carved about 160 dollhouse-sized tuck comb dolls. The dolls were dressed by Pat, and the couple sold some to Colonial Williamsburg for resale in their gift shops. The tiny dolls are very similar to the ones Victoria played with. If you have one of these rare dolls, consider yourself lucky!
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Over 20 years ago, BilI volunteered to organize a Study Program at the Shelburne museum in Vermont. As thanks to the curator who helped Bill organize things, he gave her one of his undressed tuck comb dolls. Here is a photo of Bill pointing to the doll, which the curator added to an exhibit of antique peg wooden dolls.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
The majority of Queen Victoria’s dolls are kept in storage. It is a real treat to see the twelve boxes of dolls (117 total) which Bill and Pat were able to photograph. A few dolls were missing from the photos. For example, in the header photo above you will see an Earl and Countess of Leicester. The book Queen Victoria’s Dolls also shows illustrations of a doll dressed as Queen Elizabeth, a doll in a long green dress (representing Amy Robsart in a ballet performance of Kenilworth), and a tiny Stage Soldier. It’s possible that some dolls were missing or on display elsewhere at the time. I have added a list of these missing dolls at the end of the article.
By viewing the dolls next to one another, you can get a good impression of the relative sizes. The largest doll, Mrs. Martha, housekeeper, is almost 9 inches tall, and the smallest is only 3 inches tall. Most of the dolls are between 5 and 6 inches tall.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
I was able to see a few of the dolls’ labels, but it was difficult for me to read them, so I used other sources to identify the dolls. Carol Cameron provided a very helpful list of dolls and descriptions. To label the photos, I numbered each box and added a different letter for each doll. On the corresponding list, I added the doll’s catalog number from the museum’s archives. I hope you enjoy these photos of Queen Victoria’s childhood dolls!
Box #1 (group of 8 dolls)
1A-36 Child of Mlle. Lecomte.
1B-42 Mlle. Melanie Ancilin.
1C-20 Genevieve.1
1D-48 Mlle. Constance Lecomte.
1E-35 Mlle. Constance Lecomte.
1F-38 Mlle. Zephyrine Galdatre.2
1G-44 Mlle. Sylvie Leconte.
1H-41 Mlle. Euphrosine Ancilin.
1Alt. name is Mlle. Euphrosine Ancilin. (QVD pp. 28-29)
2Alt. spelling is Galebstie. (QVD pp. 42-43)
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box #2 (group of 11 dolls)
2A-95 Berengaria, Mrs. Arnold.
2B-102 Child of Lady Agathina Arnold.
2C-101 Child of Lady Agathina Arnold.
2D-80 Lady Arnold.
2E-79 Sir William Arnold.
2F-109 Child of Gertrude, Lady Arnold.
2G-81 Miss Arnold.
2H-100 Lady Agathina Arnold.
2I-73 Lady Georgina Arnold.
2J-72 Lady Maria Arnold.
2K-108 Lady Gertrude Arnold.
Box #3 (group of 10 dolls)
33A-75 Reiza, Countess of Deptford.
3B-89 Clorinda, Countess of Newton.
3C-126 Appolonia, Countess of Delaville.
3D-90 Elinor, Countess of Wilton.
3E-129 Eugenie, Madame Dahaty.
3F-119 Maria Antoinetta, Lady Frederick Stanley.
3G-122 Georgiana, Countess of Marmion.
3H-92 Julia, Mrs. Roxbury.
3I-123 Henrietta Frant.
3J-93 Slena, Viscountess Stuart.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box #4 (group of 3 dolls)
4A-120 Susan, Countess of Derwentwater.
4B-91 Catherine, Countess of Claremont.
4C-128 Josephine, Princess Collorosky.3
3Mislabeled as Lady Pauline. (QVD p. 80)
Box #5 (group of 10 dolls)
5A-121 Mary, Lady Roxburgh.
5B-96 Lady Nina Morton.
5C-76 Lady Celestine Lenox.
5D-50 Lady Shrewsbury.
5E-111 Lady Newport.
5F-110 Lady Pauline.4
5G-132 Lady Arabella Sedley.
5H-106 Sylvanira, Countess of Barington.5
5I-107 Maria, Lady Bulkley.
5J-70 Elfrida, Lady Bedford.
4Mislabeled as Princess Collorowsky. (QVD p. 80)
5Alt. spelling is Lady Barrington. (QVD p. 82)
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box 6 (group of 10 dolls)
6A-88 Thisbe, Duchess of Worcester.
6B-127 Meta, Duchess of Montpensier.
6C-125 Zitella, Duchess of Berry.
6D-71 Elgiva, Duchess of Warwick.
6E-62 Pomona, Duchesse de Conde.
6F-94 Rosalie, Lady Oxford.
6G-124 Xarifa, Duchess of Orleans.
6H-69 Philippa, Countess of Jedborough.6
6I-118 Constantia, Duchess of Dunbar.
6J-130 Héloise, Duchess of Guiche.
6Alt. spelling is Jedburgh. (QVD 56-57)
Box 7 (group of 11 dolls)
7A-60 Blanche, Countess Flahot de la Billiarderie.
7B-55 Clara, Countess of Hopesbury.
7C-58 Juno, Duchess of Durham.
7D-117 Child of Elizabeth, Lady Mcnab.
7E-63 Rebekah, Duchess of Mountjoy.
7F-61 Child of Blanche, Countess Flahot de la Billiarderie.
7G-56 Child of Clara, Countess of Hopesbury.
7H-57 Child of Clara, Countess of Hopesbury.
7I-59 Child of Juno, Duchess of Durham.
7J-64 Child of Rebekah, Duchess of Mountjoy.
7K-65 Child of Rebekah, Duchess of Mountjoy.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box 8 (group of 10 dolls)
8A-21 Lady Clorinda.
8B-22 Victorine.
8C-23 Ernestine, made of wood and leather.
8D-24 Lisette.
8E-113 Delphine.
8F-114 Justine.
8G-45 Mlle. Antoinette.
8H-104 Little sister of Cinderella.
8I-103 Little sister of Cinderella.
8J-82 Mrs. Martha, housekeeper.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box 9 (group of 10 dolls)
9A-46 Miss Poole (a child actress).
9B-105 Ninetta, Madame Brocard.
9C-53 Monsieur Anathole.
9D-78 Miss Cawse as Lesbia, Countess Regni.
9E-77 Miss Cawse as Fatima, Lady Brighton.
9F-40 Madame Proche Giubelei.
9G-54 Monsieur Musard (clown and musician).
9H-112 Fatima.
9I-43 Madame Proche Giubelei.
9J-49 Miss Caroline Forster.
Box 10 (group of 11 dolls)
10A-115 Harriet Arnold, Duchess of Parma.
10B-52 Monsieur Albert.
10C-28 Mlle. Therese Heberlé.7
10D-17 Mlle. Paulina Duvernay in “La Bayadere.”
10E-18 Mlle. Brocard.
10F-29 Child of Mlle. Heberlé.
10G-31 Baby of Mrs. Dudley (formerly Mlle. Heberlé).
10H-32 Baby of Mrs. Dudley (formerly Mlle. Heberlé).
10I-39 Mlle. Pauline Leroux.
10J-30 Mrs. Dudley (formerly Mlle. Heberlé).
10K-47 Mlle. Porphyria Brocard.
7Alt. name is Leontine Heberlé. (QVD pp. 26-27)
There is a mystery about doll 10B, Monsieur Albert. Victoria had only eight male dolls that I am aware of (not counting babies): Monsieur Paul Taglioni, Count Almaviva, Monsieur Anathole, Monsieur Musard, Sir William Arnold, the Earl of Leicester, a tiny Stage Soldier and Monsieur Albert. Of all the dolls, Monsieur Albert’s costume was the oddest one. He was dressed in a simple silk shift. The bottom was trimmed with rows of pale blue silk ribbon. Another ribbon was tied at the waistline. Victoria’s handwritten paper label with number 52 was still attached to his clothing. The book Queen Victoria’s Dolls mentioned that Monsieur Albert was “a celebrated ballet-master of the King’s Theatre, famed for his graceful dancing.” Perhaps this was a costume from one of his performances.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Box 11 (group of 13 dolls & cradle)
11A-66 Alice, Countess of Rothsay.8
11B-67 Child of Alice, Countess of Rothsay.8
11C-68 Child of Alice, Countess of Rothsay.8
11D-83 Cinderella, Duchess of Clarendon.
11E-84 Child of Cinderella, Duchess of Clarendon.
11F-85 Child of Cinderella, Duchess of Clarendon.
11G-86 Child of Cinderella, Duchess of Clarendon.
11H-87 Child of Cinderella, Duchess of Clarendon.
11I-74 Dowager Countess of Rothsay.8
11J-116 Elizabeth, Lady McNab.
11K-97 Isabella, Lady Poulteney.9
11L-98 Child of Isabella, Lady Poulteney.9
11M-99 Child of Isabella, Lady Poulteney.9
8Alt. spelling is Rothesay. (QVD pp. 64-67)
9Alt. spelling is Pulteney. (QVD pp. 52-53, 72-73)
Box 12 (group of 10 dolls)
12A-13 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Nathalie.”
12B-10 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Sylphide.”
12C-25 Count Almaviva.
12D-8 Mlle. Marie Taglioni in “Gavotte.”
12E-9 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Rosalie.”
12F-11 Child of Sylphide Taglioni.
12G-15 Child of Madame Galdstre Taglioni.
12H-7 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Sophie.”
12I-14 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Galdstre.”
12J-26 Monsieur Paul Taglioni.
Courtesy of Bill Fifer.
Other dolls (not shown)
1 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
2 Amy Brocard, Countess of Leicester.
3 Child, Lady Margaret Dudley.
4 Child, Lord George Dudley.
5 Mlle. Marie Taglioni as “Louise.”
6 Mlle. Marie Taglioni in “La Bayadere.”
12 Child of Sylphide Taglioni.
16 Mlle. Duvernay in “Sleeping Beauty.”
19 Child of Mlle. Brocard.
27 Lady Trecillian.10
33 Madame Leconte in “L’Anneau Magique.”
34 Child of Madame Lecomte.
37 Mlle. Augusta in “La Bayadere.”
51 Mlle. Brocard in “Kenilworth.”
131 Stage Soldier.11
10Alt. name is Queen Elizabeth. (QVD pp. 16-18)
11Missing, but described in article. (The Strand Magazine pp. 233, 237)
The Stage Soldier (131) is pictured in Queen Victoria’s Dolls on the very last page. He is standing in front of a musical score for “God Save the Queen,” the national anthem of the United Kingdom. This doll was not included in any of the boxes Bill and Pat viewed, and the Royal Collection Trust does not have a picture of him. I suspect he may be missing or misplaced in the archives.
It isn’t obvious from the illustration how tiny this doll is, but you can see him next to other dolls in this photo from The Strand Magazine. The accompanying text says, “Another queer little personage is a ‘stage soldier’ (131), in white duck trousers and a scarlet coat trimmed in military fashion with gold braid.” The other dolls in the photo are Lady Arnold (2D-80), Lady Bulkley (5I-107) and Victorine (8B-22). If you assume they are 5-6” tall, then it looks like the soldier is only around 3” tall.
Researching this article has been a fascinating experience. I truly felt like a sleuth at times, tracking down obscure references and trying to correctly identify all 132 dolls. I hope you are pleased with the results. If you discover anything which needs correcting, please Contact Me.
Sources:
Cameron, Carol. “Queen Victoria’s Dolls by Carol Cameron 1.” Adventures in Dolls channel. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucQKl4G_j4. Accessed January 2026.
Cameron, Carol. “Queen Victoria’s Dolls: A Four-Part Report.” Antique Doll Collector, July/August 2019, pp. 40-55.
Dunn, Wendi, “Bill Fifer’s Gift.” A Tale of Two Hittys, November 2024. https://ataleoftwohittys.com/bill-fifers-gift/. Accessed January 2026.
“Conserving Queen Victoria’s Childhood dolls.” Historic Royal Palaces channel. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qu6P2Vw0XE. Accessed January 2026.
Dossetter, Susan. “Adventures of a Dollhouse Sleuth, Following in the Footsteps of a Princess.” Doll News, Vol. 60 No. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 88-102.
Hayter, George. “Portrait of Princess Victoria of Kent with her Spaniel Dash.” 1833. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria#/media/File:Princess_Victoria_and_Dash_by_George_Hayter.jpg. Accessed January 2026.
Low, Frances H. Queen Victoria’s Dolls. George Newnes, 1894. Antique Pattern Library. https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/pub/PDF/M-HW004.pdf. Accessed January 2026.
Low, Frances H. Queen Victoria’s Dolls. George Newnes, 1894. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/queenvictoriasdo0000fran. Accessed January 2026.
“Queen Victoria’s Dolls.” The Strand Magazine, Vol. IV, July-December, 1892, pp. 223-238. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sim_strand-magazine_july-december-1892_4/page/n223/mode/2up. Accessed January 2026.
“Queen Victoria.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria. Accessed January 2026.
Tooley, Sarah A. The Personal Life of Queen Victoria. William Briggs, 1896. p. 31. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cihm_92195/page/n42/mode/2up. Accessed January 2026.
Worsley, Lucy. Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days that Changed her Life. St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2018, pp. 48-49.
