Wooden Dolls

12" AND 9" SIZES OF THE JOEL ELLIS &
MASON & TAYLOR STYLE DOLLS

Click image to see photos of Springfield Woodens

A Brief History

Joel Ellis dolls and other similar wooden dolls, collectively called Springfield Woodens, began in Springfield, Vermont, in a factory founded by Joel Ellis in 1858. Ellis made other items, most notably doll carriages, toy carts, some doll furniture and oddly, violin cases. The dolls known as Joel Ellis dolls were only made for one year, 1878, but soon after, a group of men formed a cooperative and made many other variations of the now famous jointed wooden doll using many patents, but primarily all made by Mason and Taylor. With the second group of dolls, the main differences were new composition (various styles) head and more complicated joints. The entire body of dolls is so confusing - it is hard to tell who was responsible for which dolls, that most doll collectors group them all together and call them simply the Springfield Woodens. Only Ellis dolls had the distinctive rock maple wooden head which was then steamed and pressed into molds. This process thus compressed the already hard wood even more and inadvertantly made the heads unable to hold their painted surfaces for more than one season as wood expands and contracts with humidity, thus popping the paint off with the movement. There are virtually no Ellis dolls around today with very good original paint, and even those held by museums have some very old, but nonetheless repaired, paint. The dolls were made with incredible joints and mostly had pewter hands and feet, probably because these could be cast into the shapes, whereas they would be impossible to mass produce by carving. Ellis intended the dolls to be sold undressed so that children could marvel at the joints, but of course children are children and wanted clothing, so Ellis was compelled to hire local women to sew the outfits.I was born and raised in Springfield, Vermont, so it is very appropriate for me to be making these dolls. Since I do not have a factory at my disposal, I have designed a doll that one would know right away is a "Joel Ellis" doll, but one that is able to be produced using simpler methods. My doll has a wooden body with lathe turned arms and legs which are indeed jointed, hands and feet are cast in pewter like the originals and the head, though in the style of an Ellis doll, is my own sculpting and made of sturdy papier mache. The first of my dolls of this type was made in October, 2005. Like Ellis, I find it hard to dress the dolls after all the work on the wood parts, so I include a dress form with my dolls to display her outfit nearby. Each doll is signed and dated. This past year I added a "Mason & Taylor" version, which is to say it has a head more in the general style of M&T dolls with more complicated hair styles and it has the distinctive blue shoes.