The Lawton Doll Company
548 North First Street
Turlock, CA 95380
Phone: (209) 632-3655
Fax: (209) 632-6788
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Abigail and Jane Augusta 1994
Early American Portrait
Edition of 250
Retail Price $995
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In the early years of our
country, portraits were a rare and highly valued art form. Academy-trained
artists were few and far-between. When their services could be secured,
the cost was prohibitive. But Yankee ingenuity came to the forefront, and
a bold, inventive portrait style emerged. Practiced largely by unschooled
itinerant portraitists, called limners, the style we now refer to as American
Folk Portraiture enjoyed enormous popularity in the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries.
Although their style appeared
unsophisticated to the trained eye, the work of the folk portraitist was
enthusiastically embraced by mainstream America. A Maine journalist, John
Neal, wrote his stinging assessment of the limner's efforts in 1829, "You
can hardly open the door of a best room anywhere, without surprizing or
being surprized by, the picture of somebody, plastered to a wall and staring
at you with both eyes and a bunch of flowers." Mr. Neal's criticism
notwithstanding, folk portraiture is highly esteemed today for its universal
appeal. What the portraits may lack in technique, they more than compensate
in strength and exuberance of detail.
Folk Art Portraiture, long
a passion of Wendy Lawton's, proved to be the inspiration for Abigail and
Jane Augusta, the first edition in Lawton's Early American Portrait Collection.
Abigail sits primly on the edge of her delicately-turned Windsor chair,
proudly holding her precious doll, Jane Augusta. Abigail is 16" tall
with a porcelain head and hands on a 13-joint, hand-carved wooden body.
The bow-back Windsor chair is hand-carved and bent of select hardwoods,
exclusively for The Lawton Doll Company. The hand-rubbed finish has been
gently aged to simulate generations of use. The Lawton Doll Company name
is incised on the under seat of the chair. Also an original sculpt by Wendy
Lawton, Jane Augusta has been made in the tradition of the papier mache
Milliner's Models of the early nineteenth century. Cast in composition and
hand-painted to replicate a subtly aged patina, Jane Augusta patiently joins
Abigail in sitting for the limner's brush.
Doll Name
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Edition
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# Made
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Year
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Status
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Retail
Price
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EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAIT
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Abigail and Jane Augusta**/*** |
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250 |
1994 |
Closed |
$995.00 |
**Nominated for a DOTY
***Nominated for a Dolls Award of Excellence
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Carrie And Sophia Grace 1995
Early American Portrait
Edition of 350
Retail Price $1,250
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Carrie poses for the limner's
portrait seated on her family's treasured Windsor nanny rocker. Her cherished
doll, Sophia Grace, is contentedly settled by her side. Carrie has porcelain
hands and head on a fully jointed wooden body, standing 16" tall. Sophia
Grace is 9" on a cloth body. The wooden bowback Windsor cradle rocker
is included.
Doll Name
|
Edition
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# Made
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Year
|
Status
|
Retail
Price
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EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAIT
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Carrie and Sophia Grace*/** |
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350 |
1995 |
Closed |
$1,250.00 |
*DOTY award winner
**Nominated for a DOTY
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Clarissa Fields and Bangwell Putt 2000 Early American Portrait
Edition of 175
Retail Price $1,295
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More
than 225 years ago, a blind girl named Clarissa Fields was given a
rag doll she named Bangwell Putt. Little did she know that her
doll would be carefully tended by her descendants and finally
gifted to Memorial Hall Museum. The poems young Clarissa dictated
to her sister are still pinned to the doll's slip. Bangwell Putt
is now the oldest extant rag doll in America. It is to Clarissa's
memory that we dedicate our version of Clarissa Fields and
Bangwell Putt.
Bangwell Putt is used with permission from Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association, Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield,
Massachusetts.
Doll Name
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Edition
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# Made
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Year
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Status
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Retail
Price
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EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAIT
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Clarissa Fields
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175 |
2000 |
Closed |
$1,295 |
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