Collecting antique porcelain dolls can be a very rewarding hobby. Talented artisans have been creating beautiful dolls for decades. The number of choices from countries all over the world are enormous! Although today you can buy good quality reproductions, modern technology has also seen an increase in fakes. How do you spot these fakes being sold as originals? There are many tell-tale signs that will sound alarm bells. Here are the basics:

Doll Marks

This is a subject for its own article however, let’s take a quick look.

If you are buying in the USA, all dolls made and imported after 1891 required to be marked with the country of origin. Although the form of mark can be located on the back of the head, chest, shoulder or the soles of the feet they can also be encoded within the material or simply an attached label. The presence of a mark immediately dates the doll as post 1891. The mark will commonly involve a mould number, size number, patent number and of course the manufacturers initial or stamp. No marks MAY mean pre 1891. If the doll has no marks be sure to check the following:

Eyes

Take a look at the eyes closely and look for these signs:

• Look for glass not plastic.
• If the doll is meant to have ‘sleep eyes’ make sure they work and not simply glued in place.
• The eye socket or cut should be symmetrical.
• The porcelain at the socket edge should be thin.
• Does the eye socket have the correct colours for that doll? Usually antique dolls only have eye shadow.

Eyelashes

• The eyelashes should not be symmetrical.
• One eyelash should have more strokes than the other.
• They should be fine, thin strokes not thick.

Eyebrows

• The eyebrows should be finely painted. Similar to the eye lashes.
• They should not be symmetrical.
• Check the location on the face. The doll should not have a surprised look on its face.

Bisque

Legitimate porcelain will have been around a while and most probably made from a bisque that looks realistic. Expect to see some fine crazing. Of course any cracks or evidence of repair will effect value.

Costume

• Is the dolls costume or dress appropriate for the era of the doll?
• What material is used? There should not be polyester or any other relatively modern material.

Hair

• Mohair or human hair not polyester.

Composites

Most antique porcelain dolls are actually are combination of parts from different manufacturers. It was common practice for manufacturers to specialize in heads and supply to the greater market. Be sure to check for marks. Refer above.

It is difficult to quickly assess whether an antique doll is real or a fake. Although the above list is a short insight, familiarize yourself with the particular doll/s you are interested in by visiting museums and other collections to study up close what the real thing should look like. This will give you a good benchmark.

Those of us engaged in the hobby of reborning put a lot of time, money and effort into buying the right reborning supplies to painstakingly reborn our baby dolls. We need to use a lot of tools and chemicals (paints, glues, etc) and in the case of reborning, what you don’t know CAN hurt you, or more specifically, your doll!

Here’s my list of five ways to ruin your reborn baby doll, in the hopes that it will save you from these stomach-twisting “oh no!” moments, which many unfortunate reborners in the past (and sadly, present) have faced:

Oh no! #1

Try to glue eyelashes onto your doll head with clear nail polish.

First of all, it truly isn’t a very good adhesive. Secondly, if you goof up (let’s face it, it happens) in order to take the lashes off again you’ll have to follow step number two on my list:

Oh no! #2

Use nail polish remover on your doll.

Regular nail polish remover contains the solvent acetone which can be damaging to plastics and vinyl. Of course you know that our dolls are made from plastics and vinyl. You especially want to avoid this chemical around the doll’s eyes because they can easily be degraded by coming into contact with acetone. Now is it even more clear why you shoudn’t use nail polish to attach the lashes?

So you can’t use good ol’ clear nailpolish to attach those lashes. What else might be a good adhesive? Hm…well if you want to ruin your doll you might try this:

Oh no! #3

Use super glue on your doll.

Are you ready for the scary truth? Super glue will MELT most doll eyes. That’s not something you want to happen. But maybe you are thinking you can use it elsewhere on your doll? Don’t do it! Unless you want to ruin your doll, of course. Superglue can be damaging to plastics and acrylics.

Maybe you’re thinking…I know! Hot glue!

Sorry honey, no can do! (can you tell I was an English major?)

Oh no! #4

Use hot glue on your baby doll.

Once again, you are looking at degraded, broken down, damaged plastic and vinyl.

Your husband or teenage son like to build model cars? Why not use that glue? It’s glue for plastic, after all. No! Hot rod and fighter jet plastic is hard. Baby doll vinyl and plastic is soft. So if you want to ruin your doll:

Oh no! #5

Use model glue on your reborn baby doll.

See Oh no! #4 for the reason why.

OH YES!

So what kind of adhesives should you use in the making of your reborn baby doll?

The favorite choice of glue in the reborn supplies tool kit of experienced reborners is Aleene’s Tacky Glue. This can be found at many craft stores. You can also use specialty craft glue E6000 which I would recommend if you are making a doll in the hopes of selling it as this is a higher quality glue with a very strong bond.

So there it is, 5 ways you can ruin your reborn baby doll!

Of course I hope you use this information so that you don’t have the same “oh no!” moments that others have had when working on a reborning project. It’s my hope that you DON’T ruin any dolls and that you instead create adorable, lifelike baby dolls that will bring smiles to the faces of those who hold them for many years to come, without any of these “oh no”s!  

Like reborn dolls? Read more about reborn babies over at