Porcelain Prototypes

The dolls featured here are all Porcelain prototypes that never became production models.   They may have started off life as one character, who was discarded, and later re-appeared, with a new name and modified costume, as someone new.   We may never know why - but is that so important?   What really counts is whether you would have liked to have any of these dolls in your collection!

A pretty doll - but who was she meant to be? A waif of Dickensian London streets, perhaps?
Was this doll going to be a Kate Greenaway character?
Was this doll also going to be from the Kate Greenaway series?
This prototype of 7603 "Winter" became "Saturday's Girl in the "Victorian Birthday" series. Her face was said to have been modelled on Peggy Nisbet as a child
Her tags tell us this doll was to be an "Edwardian Boating lady", but sadly, she was never issued
This elegant doll's tags tell us she was an "Edwardian Lady Motorist" - but she never went into production
This beautiful prototype doll is one of our personal favourites - Her Renaissance costume makes us think of Shakespeare's heroine Juliet, and her strangely elongated body would fit with the shape of the Boudoir dolls. A loss to collectors everywhere!

News

21st September 2023

 

Important Announcement

 

My dear wife, Christine, passed away on the 8th December, 2021, after 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