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The Charm of the Paper Dolls

The world first saw the dolls appearance in the city of Paris during the 18th century while Louis XV was reining the land. The appeal and design of the dolls immediately caught the attention of the gay circle of the grand French society. On the other side, British printers and doll makers printed moral stories on the bodies of the dolls themselves. Now it is very clear that the dolls have been used for different purposes during the early times!

Early European paper dolls often depict famous actors and actresses of the early years, and they were primarily used during performances on toy stages. For those who love English literature, some are even using these paper dolls to enact Shakespeare plays and play Shakespearean characters. Paper dolls in America had its own humble beginnings because paper back then was considered a scarce or precious resource. It is because of this that little children, if ever they will have some paper dolls, will really treasure each one of them by putting them into boxes or the in-between pages of their books. But as years passed by, paper became less expensive and this bring forth the mass production of paper dolls made out of cheap cardboard boxes.

Many people in the past earned some money by coloring paper dolls manually. The reason behind this is that the technology of colored printing on paper dolls was not yet fully established. The fashion for paper dolls in the early days was also treated with utmost modesty. All paper dolls back then are fully clothed, and some were even depicted wearing multiple layers of clothes. However, as time passed by, clothing commercialization affected the way dolls will incorporate fashion to themselves. Many expensive materials such as silk and linen were then used as clothing to these paper dolls.

Paper dolls began achieving greater fame when they crept their way out into the pages of world-famous magazines. Among the popular early magazines that featured paper dolls were Ladies World, Womans Home Companion, Pictorial Review, Ladies Home Journal, McCalls, Good Housekeeping and Delineator. The paper dolls shown on these magazines were really good that they are really sought by many doll collectors today.

Paper Dolls are also used to depict world famous Hollywood actors and actresses, which further boost their already widely accepted popularity. Among the famous celebrities that were featured as paper dolls were Tyrone Power, Betty Hutton, Greer Garson, Mary Martin, Sonja Henie, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner among others. These types of paper dolls are among the hardest to find and also one of the most sought types of paper dolls in the world today.

Anton Sunhome is a author at Dress up games a children's website focusing on safe online games for kids. He is also editor at Coloring Pages also a well known children website.

posted by gcpdt @ 10:12 AM