Two More L&B Ballerina Victorian Paper Dolls.

  The two latest additions to my growing collection of L&B dolls.

Two more L&B ballerinas have been added to my growing collection.  I won these off eBay about a week ago and even though they are not in top shape I at least have them in my collection until I'm able to get mint copies of them.  The good thing was that since there were two copies of each doll; I was able to salvage out one fair copy of each from all the parts.  They both scanned and cleaned up well enough that I now have digital copies that will allow me to create whatever paper art dolls strikes my fancy.

This is what the dolls looked before I carefully took them apart.

Broken arms, broken legs, missing and bent parts.

It took me about 3 hours to carefully pry off the back side 

of all the eyelets so I could separate all the pieces.

These are scanned and cleaned up images of both new paper dolls.

Here is what they look like after I scanned them and did some photo editing to 

patch up the really bad spots so I would have usable images to create 

art dolls from them later on.

(I did not want to clean them up too much since I think a bit of the "warts" 

showing gives these girls character - grins)

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The L&B Ballerina and Prima Donnas were originally made and sold in 4 different sizes. I've only had the largest size dolls in my collection until today. Currently, I'm lacking an original example of the smallest size paper doll but I know I will eventually have that in my collection as well. It's just a matter of time.

This is what the 3 sizes look like next to each other.

The Largest is 14" the Medium is 11 1/2" and the Smaller one is 9 3/4" tall

Here are the sizing breakdown of what I know so far.

The Large Doll (14" when assembled):
Torso 5 1/2" - Head 4" - Legs 7" - arms 4 1/2"

The Medium Doll (11 1/2" when assembled):
Torso 4 1/2" - Head 3 1/2" - Legs 5 3/4" - Arms 3 3/4"

The Smaller Doll (9 3/4 when assembled):
Torso 3 3/4" - Head 3 1/8" - Legs 5" - Arms 3 1/4"

Collecting these Victorian L&B paper dolls has been a fascinating quest. I hope to eventually find out what famous people of the day these two beauties represent and with a bit of luck I will eventually find them in mint, uncut condition.

The great thing about having spares and left over bits and pieces is that once I get my mint replacements I intend to assemble and create art dolls from these less than perfect examples so I can frame them.  I'll add shoes and other accessories to hid the missing and broken parts so no one but me will know the finished product is anything less than perfect.  This way even the most battered dolls will be a thing of beauty on my wall while the mint dolls remain protected and safely stored away.

Grins and Giggles

 Evelyn (EKDuncan)