Porcelain Dolls

Victorian Birthday Dolls

The range of Victorian Birthday Dolls were made in response to the old rhyme that many will recall, said to predict a child's personality and prospects in life, depending on the day they were born :

Monday’s child is fair of face

Tuesday’s child is full of grace

Wednesday’s child is full of woe

Thursday’s child has far to go

Friday’s child is loving and giving

Saturday’s child works hard for a living

But a child that is born on the Sabbath day

is bonny and blithe, and good, and gay

The first dolls, issued from 1980, had bisque porcelain heads made by Healcraft, a Stoke-on-Trent pottery. They were given model numbers as follows :  

  • Monday's Girl - V850, and Monday's Boy V851,   through to
  • Sunday's Girl - V862, and Sunday's Boy V 863

Each doll has a mark on the back of the neck, as seen in the example below - He is "Sunday's Boy", and this series of dolls all had the standard black "book tag" familiar to Nisbet collectors.

Sunday's Boy "Healcraft" porcelain head, showing "PN Shield" logo
Black "Book" Tag, as sued on the Nisbet "Healcraft" series dolls

Dolls issued from 1983 onwards had Doulton Nisbet Bone China heads, and were given alternative model numbers - they also had a different wrist tag :

  • Monday's Girl - 7590 and Monday's Boy - 7570,   through to
  • Sunday's Girl - 7602 and Sunday's Boy - 7582
The Royal Doulton Nisbet tag, used on the later Royal Doulton porcelain head dolls

As shown here, the dolls were constructed on a cloth body, with the porcelain head being sewn on, as can be seen in the undressed "Saturday's Girl" below.   Nisbet produced the bodies, attached the heads, and dressed the dolls.

Note how the arms are secured at the shoulder with a button, to allow some freedom of movement.   This would have made dressing the doll easier, and allowed some flexibility when posing the doll, for display

What day of the week were you born on? Use this chart to calculate your day of birth!
Day of Birth Calculator.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [85.2 KB]

 

The slideshow below displays the entire collection of “Victorian Birthday” dolls

Please note that Tuesday's Girl is a prototype doll, and has a glazed face - the production doll had an unglazed face, and was modelled in keeping with the rest of the range.

Saturday's Girl is said to have been modelled from a photograph of Peggy Nisbet as a child - She certainly did work hard for a living!

(17th August 2014 - Our thanks to Richard T for his questions about these dolls - His queries weren't covered by the original content of this page, hence the current update!)

The doll pictures will auto run as a slide show in the window above.

Press F5 (function key 5 on your keyboard), to re-start the slide show.

Alternatively, you may control the slideshow manually – follow the steps below :

  • Place the cursor at the bottom of the window to access thumbnail and navigation control bar
  • Click on the “?” (question mark) symbol (bottom left hand side of the control bar) for a detailed explanation of the controls
  • See a full screen slideshow by clicking on the “Square with Arrow” symbol (2nd from right on the control bar)
  • Use the keyboard arrow keys to move forward and back through the slideshow, as desired
  • Use the “ESC” key to leave full screen mode

News

21st September 2023

 

Important Announcement

 

My dear wife, Christine, passed away on the 8th December, 2021after 8 weeks in hospital. I was by her side, when she slipped away from me peacefully, with no pain or suffering.

 

Chris had been struggling with a slow decline in health, associated with a progressive, untreatable, and ultimately terminal lung disease, and finally succumbed to her old adversary, Pneumonia.

 

We had been friends for 55 years, together as a couple for 50 years, and married just a month short of 48 years, when she died.   

 

This website was Chris's idea, and I did all the technical stuff, to make it work.   After news of Chris's passing reached her close friends in the doll collecting world, I was deeply touched and gratified to hear their tributes to my dear wife, and I must thank them all for their kindness and support.   Ultimately, it was her doll friends that gave me the courage to continue with the website.

 

In the months before her eventual hospitalisation, Chris had outlined a number of additions and changes she wanted to make to the website, and it is my intention to honour those wishes, and to implement the changes we had considered, over the coming weeks and months.

 

I must apologise to all those who have written to us via the website, only to have your emails go unanswered.   Unfortunately, the email system had been hacked aroung the time Chris was going into hospital, and many emails must have been lost, as a result.

 

As you might imagine, I felt completely broken by Chris's loss, and it is only now, almost 22 months after her passing, that I have felt strong enough to even look at the website again.   

 

My aim is to continue with the website, and to implement Chris's aims for her many new ideas as soon as I can.   In the meantime, I have hopefully got the email system sorted out, and I will attempt to answer any enquiries as soon as I can, and to send replies with the same high degree of accuracy that a reply from Chris would have had.

 

From now on, I will be flying solo, whilst my co-pilot and guide will be soaring much higher, (though she is always in my heart, and in my thoughts).

 

My thanks to all our website visitors for your continued support

 

Dave (also known as Arthur), and Chris, (my lost love, Guinevere)

 

Christine Poulten

25th December 1949 - 8th December 2021