The Lawton Doll Company
548 North First Street
Turlock, CA 95380
Phone: (209) 632-3655
Fax: (209) 632-6788
CustomerService@ LawtonDolls.com

2001 Masterpiece Edition

     The young girl stood at the steamship until she could barely make out
the mountainous outline of her beloved Ceylon.  She imagined her
father making his way back to the tea sheds on their Nuwara Eliya
estate in time to weigh the leaves and to oversee the workers
spreading them on the tats for withering.  She felt a pang of
homesickness -longing for one last scent of her family's aromatic
Ceylon tea- but she knew that her adventure had well and truly begun
. . .

     When the once-upon-a-time mood descends, it is a sure sign that The
Lawton Doll Company is preparing to issue yet another story told in
porcelain.  Every other year or so, a new doll begins to grow in my
imagination. The doll is always rich in story and concept, based on
months of research. The edition consists of an entire ensemble-
clothes, accessories, trunk, etc- all help tell the story. Because
this edition represents the pinnacle of our collective talent, we
call it our Masterpiece Edition.

     The 2000 masterpiece edition is Miss Camilla Bennison of Ceylon.   It's
an evocative story from the nineteenth century, spanning tea
plantations in Ceylon to the gilded age of the London social season.

     Camilla embodies the hopes and dreams of many a young expatriate
of the British Empire during the late nineteenth century.  Standing a
petite 14" tall, Camilla has a porcelain torso, head and hands on a
fully spring-jointed, hand-carved wooden body.

     One of the distinctions of a Lawton Masterpiece edition is the
detail created to help tell the story.  Camilla's trunk is weathered
leather, with postcards and mementos of Ceylon pasted inside the lid.
An excelsior-filled china crate accompanies her, so that the family's
famous tea can be properly served.  Camilla also travels with a reed
and jute tea case, filled with sacks of aromatic tea. To help stave
off loneliness, she tucked in her embossed photo album at the last
minute.

	Camilla plans to buy most of her lingerie when the Orient Express stops in Paris, but she brings the exquisite sacque stitched by her ayah of a delicate batiste imported from Switzerland and lace that made it's way from France.
Camilla loves the family tea business. Rather than being diffident about her family's involvement "in trade," she relishes the challenge of consolidating contacts in London on behalf of her father.  Armed with samples of Bennison Tea, and dressed in a no-nonsense silk shirtwaist and wool challis skirt, she traipses all over London, visiting the Bennison colleagues-  from the tea merchants and factors to the tea sheds down at the docks.
	Camilla travels to London for that peculiar Victorian rite of passage- the London social season.  Staying at the home of her great aunt-who will launch her in society- Camilla makes it a point to host afternoon tea, serving aromatic Ceylon tea from the Bennison estate.  Camilla's tea gown is stunning in goldenrod silk trimmed with a silk tartan plaid with a separate plaid chemisette and sash.
The crowning achievement for any young woman in her first season is a voucher for Almacks.  Camilla's evening toilette consists of an off-the- shoulder silk gown in the color of the season-ashes of roses- trimmed with iridescent pliss� ruffles. Her dance card dangles from her wrist.

   Judging by the secondary market demand for the three sold-out editions released so far by the Lawton Doll Company, collectors are drawn to these stories in porcelain.

      The Glove Marriage of Anneke van de Lijn 

Issued in 1996
Edition of 150

The Merry Widow in Three Acts

Issued in 1997 
Edition of 150

     Mignonette and her Malle du Voyage

Issued in 1999 
Edition of 150