Rare Lenci Dolls | The Lenci Doll Collector Blog

I am delighted to share with your a rare glimpse of a pair of very rare early Lenci character dolls from the first years of the Lenci company. Leanne from Australia has generously shared photos of her extremely rare Lenci dolls – possibly a prince and princess or a lady and knight or minstrel. The man has an upturned gaze perhaps posed to look upwards towards his lady above on a balcony. ladyandminstrel

Rare Lenci Character Dolls in Medieval Costume

lady-face

Previously in an old blog post ( http://lenci-dolls.com/082007.html) I shared a picture of a similar pair of dolls – but the due to the way the dolls were posed we could not clearly see the outfits I had attempted to reconstruct the prince’s outfit in photoshop but never saw the details on the leggings because they were hidden by a table. I can now see that they are indeed a match for Leanne’s dolls. Finally the mystery is resolved! A big Thank You to Leanne for sharing these great detailed pictures! lencipair

This was the live proxibid auction of Theriaults “Other People’s Lives” – Session II, Antique Dolls on Saturday, January 14, 2012. The highest price of this selection went to lot 399 a very rare ethnic doll “Hottentot” from the mid 1920’s in great condition with original outfit and accessories, closely followed by a rare googly, autumn from the seasons collection of 1931. The Pola Negri doll with silk hair in a white dress with felt trimmings that was attributed to Lenci – in my opinion it looks more like a Perotti of Brazil – it sold for $4,000. Joao Perotti was a former Lenci worker that started his own company in Brazil and made dolls using molded felt similar to the Lenci dolls, but using cheaper materials like the silk hair, and usually they are dressed in spanish costume and their felt trimmings often use zig zag edging (which is rarely seen in Lenci dolls) like the flower in the hair of this doll.