The Search for the Unbreakable Doll
Mark and Irene Cornelius

In plastiquarian no. 27 (Winter 2001), John Loadman drew attention to 'The Little Ash Girl', a poem by Nathan D Urner published in 1885. He posed two questions: what was the first reference to dolls being made from rubber, or was this indeed the first serious reference? This provided the starting point for an illustrated talk by Mark and Min Cornelius in January 2002 to a joint meeting of the PHS and, the South Eastern Plastics & Rubber Group. This article is taken from a part of that talk.

After Charles Goodyear Patented the vulcanisation process in 1842, making rubber less brittle, his brother Nathan applied it to toymaking. Indeed, he thought it might lead to the production of an 'unbreakable' doll. At this time, many dolls were made from ceramics, especially porcelain. They were exported from France and Germany to the USA, where, the Goodyears lived, and were very expensive. In 1851, Charles obtained a patent for 'a rubber doll's head'. The heads were fitted on to a stuffed cloth body and had leather crowns to which wigs were attached. Each doll was marked 'Goodyear Patent May 6th 1851 extended to 1865'. Although we have some rubber dolls in our collection [the authors are owners and curators of the Museum of Toys, & Games at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire] we do, not have a Goodyear example: they are rare. Other companies - The New York Rubber Co. and Benjamin F Lee Co. made dolls under licence from Goodyear. Edward Immerson Horsman & Co. made dolls from many different materials but eventually acquired the rights to the production of a rubber/composite material called Adtocolite. Heads, bodies, arms and legs were all made from this material. The dolls were marketed as Can't Break 'em Dolls - a name which must have sounded a challenge to the young owner!.

Time has, on the whole, not been kind to rubber dolls. They perish, harden and crack, and the applied paint chips and lifts away.  From the 1920s to the 1940s was the golden age for rubber/composition dolls but they are not so highly regarded by collectors as the porcelain and bisque-headed dolls they were designed to replace. In part-answer to John's question, then, if that poor girl's doll was indeed a 'Goodyear', it may have been 30 years old when thrown away in the 1880s.

Another 'unbreakable' material
Although created in England, the first patents, for Celluloid (cellulose nitrate) were taken out by the, Hyatt Brothers in 1869 in the USA. This material was very brittle and breakable. If made from too thick a sheet, toy cracked, and warped: if too
thin, it would squash. There proved: to be as many disadvantages to its use as advantages. The dolls and other simple toys made from it distorted and dented easily, the seams readily opened up, it lost its colour in bright sunlight; and was highly inflammable. As collectors, and curators, we realised that toys in our collection made. from celluloid  needed careful handling. Once a toy or other object made from it was damaged there was little chance of restoration. However, one joy in collecting
celluloid dolls in particular is that, although now usually much cheaper to buy than their porcelain counterparts, many are as fine in quality as the best bisque (a type of unglazed white porcelain) dolls. As non-chemists, we were fascinated by the description of the early production of celluloid from 'pulverised tissue paper converted to nitrocellulose by adding nitric and sulphuric acids and combining the, resulting material with camphor fillers, alcohol and pigments'.

The Rheinische Gummi & Celluloid Fabrik Co. in Mannheim, Germany was producing dolls in 1873. Their Schildkrote (tortoise) trademark was registered in 1889, and placed within a diamond in that year. This mark is the one best known to many doll collectors. By 1897, this firm was advertising 'unbreakable and washable dolls heads', lightweight and colourfast. For the sake of cheapness, other companies merely added cosmetic colour to the surface of the material. What :a disappointment this must, have been to the child who tried to wash dolly's face - and still is to the
present day collector attempting a clean-up.

The Japanese imported celluloid from Germany between 1870 and 1912. This was worked by hand and used as a substitute for natural materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell and coral. The range of objects thus produced was vast, including boxes for trinkets and cigarettes. brush-backs, combs, hairpins, table-tennis balls, spectacle frames and small ornaments The cleverly 'grained' ivory effect was called Ivorine. During the First World War, Germany stopped exporting celluloid. Japan started up its own manufacturing plants and by 1920 was the world's leading producer of all types of celluloid products. They included baby rattles, games and all kinds of toys including self-righting Kelly dolls, planes, cars and boats. This continued until World War Two, after which Japanese companies produced a more sophisticated range, some remarkably complicated such as model fairground rides and crawling and climbing toys. The most collectable Japanese celluloid toys today are those marked 'Made in Occupied Japan'

Many souvenir costume dolls were made of celluloid until the late 1950s. Indeed, as these have been made and/or dressed in virtually each and every plastics material as it has become available, this could be a fruitful area for plastics enthusiasts to study. However, around that time doll-makers began to stop using celluloid and to work with newer, safer, more reliable and more hygienic plastics which are truly unbreakable. Nevertheless, it is still possible to find later celluloid dolls with plastics eyes and nylon hair as some Eastern European countries continued to use celluloid until the 1990s.