New-born flange head (circumference 5 inches) with closed mouth, painted eyes, domed head with painted hair, and many blemishes. Marked '392' or '592' or 'J92' and 'Germany'. Origin not certain (to me).
Restored on reproduction cloth body with cloth feet, reproduction hands in fist shape from a modern doll, and christening outfit in ecru silks and lace. See below for further construction details.
The popularity of this type of new-born head began in 1922 with the Bye-Lo Baby (later referred to as the 'Million Dollar Baby') designed by Grace Storey Putnam. It was copied in 1924 by Armand Marseille who introduced his Dream Baby (mould numbers 341 closed mouth, and 351 open mouth), which can be found in many sizes on many different types of cloth body.

This is a solemn-faced bisque flange head, with painted eyes and hair, designed to go on a cloth body . It is probable this doll had cloth feet covered by the clothing (as I have restored it). It may also have had cloth hands, but I have added fist shaped hands from a modern doll mold; I like the result, but the hands would not have been like this originally. Detail of the hands is shown with the face detail.

I made the "frog body" by reducing the pattern supplied in The Handbook of Doll Repair and Restoration book by Marty Westfall. The frog body is made in a sitting position and has cloth (or 'no') feet. With hindsight I would have weighted the bottom half of the body and legs by using sand for stuffing; as I did not do this the doll is top heavy and will tip over backwards very easily. I made reproduction hands for this doll by taking a mould of a modern doll hand set, in order to reduce them to the size I needed. It was my first venture into mould making and I was lucky it worked out. I had no idea how to make moulds and thus used an impossible technique but managed to achieve my aim, since the hands are such small items with a simple mould line.

The doll is dressed in ecru dupion silk and modern cotton lace (both easily obtainable). The pattern is a christening gown pattern by Joan Nerini; I had to reduce the pattern to fit, with less gathering on the bonnet and without the cape, because of the small size of the doll.