I’m sure all you British doll collectors know of the Cobo dolls and most likely have one in your collection but she was new to me. I had heard the name so when cruising the auction houses online I happened to see one and I thought I would like to add her to my folk art collection. She went for a pittance. I felt sorry for poor Cobo Alice as I think I was the only bidder! She is not a beauty but then beauty is in the eye of the doll beholder and I find her charming.
Cobo is on the West Coast of Guernsey very much a fishing economy in the 19th century. Alice Guille was a wife of a local fisherman and started making dolls in the 1870’s no doubt to add to the meagre wages of a fisherman. She used off-cuts of unbleached cotton that were discarded from the sail repairs her husband made to his fishing nets. The head was made from a stocking or a vest and the eyes and nose needle stitched. A willow branch was used to stabilize the head. Dolly was stuffed with sawdust, had arms, no hands. The arms were just rounded off, but the legs ended in a foot shape. Her head was then dipped in a primer as were the lower arms and the feet. Her hair was flat painted with what looks like house paint and the outline of her stitched facial features were painted the appropriate brown and red paint for the lip outline. The lips are not needle stitched. The limbs were swing joined at shoulder and hip. My Alice weighs 2.2lbs and is 18” tall. No doubt they were sold undressed and mine has a Mommy/Granny knitted ensemble. The business involved all the family her husband stuffed the bodies. I wouldn’t be surprised if other fish wives in Cobo helped in the making. The dolls were made from the 1870’s through to the 1920’s I would love to know more about Alice Guille, an entrepreneur much like Izannah Walker, Martha Chase and all the other 19th century creative women doll makers who have made our doll journeys so fascinating.