LENCI, THE EARLY YEARS

By Florence Theriault

Here’s a trend that holds true across all categories of doll collecting. The early years of a dollmaker’s work are often overlooked. Instead, it’s the golden years of a particular doll that are most sought by the novice collector, the period when the doll artist or firm has achieved excellent quality control, both in materials and in production. And so it is with the Lenci doll, because it is her fashionable, colorful and wonderful child dolls from the 1929-1935 era that are most sought today, while important and extremely rare dolls from the 1919-1925 era are often overlooked.

That is a pity, for the dolls of these early years have other important values. They clearly project the dollmaker’s artistic vision. They are more visionary, more experimental, not at all hesitant about being different. And since the background of the dollmaker is often artistic or intellectual, rather than profit-making, the hard facts of business have not yet impacted their work. Three early 20th century women whose dollmaking years began this way were Kathe Kruse, Sasha Morgenthaler and Elena di Scavini. It is the early dolls of Elena di Scavini that are shown in this article.

In the post WWI years, as Scavini cast about for a life purpose, she rambled into the making of dolls. To this end, she remembered her own favorite childhood doll of rags and wood, of which she said, “My doll was nothing and therefore she could become anything”. After her initial experiments in making a doll of canvas, she realized that she wanted a fabric that could be molded. Felt, of course! Just like a hat, and so it was a hat factory she turned to for the production of a thin felt fabric that could be pressed onto a mold. Thus, the firm was born.

While 1919 and 1920 were the first years of production, and it is true that the quality of the felt was less refined than that of the golden years of the late 1920s, it is also true that the dolls from this era overcame that impediment through sheer force of characterization. This was the era of celebrity doll, of winking or sulky characters, of theatrical mainstays from Commedia dell’arte or circus figures that hinted back to Elena’s own teen-age years in the circus. Her studies in photography surely inspired a fascination with Hollywood silent film stars of which the most notable she created was Valentino as The Sheik. But there was also Josephine Baker, Tom Mix, Jim (Gene) Tunney and Jackie Coogan, who were specially named in the Lenci catalog, and others whose characterization was vaguely suggested such as Marlene Dietrich and Raquel Meller.

One particular character serves as example. This was Jim (Gene) Tunney who held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928. In 1926 the Lenci firm presented a doll “178/A Tunney” in boxing costume. It appears to have been offered under that name for only one year, so it is intriguing to wonder if licensing issues occurred, as often happened during these early days of the licensing industry.

Interestingly, three years later, another doll appeared in exactly the same costume, described simply as “1005 Boxer”, and then in 1931, once again in a tiny 6 ½” size as “Series XX/6”.

Since the mid-1800s, Europeans had been fascinated with the “Wild West” of the United States. When Hollywood’s silent films rolled around, this fascination was heightened, so it was no surprise that among the very first group of dolls offered by Elena Scavini in 1919/1920 there were the “#6 Cow Boy” and “#1 Chef Indien”. Soon after appeared Tom Mix who had starred in American Western silent films from 1909 onward and was known to be admired by Madame Lenci, as evidenced by her 1926 doll “178 Tom Mix”.

The early dolls of Elena Scavini and the Lenci firm offer great opportunity for collectors seeking to connect their dolls with historical and cultural changes. Did the famous Salome doll of Lenci represent a particular performer or merely the role itself? Did the scandalous rumors surrounding the Salome performance enhance the sale of the doll or destroy it, since the doll is extremely rare and appears to have been made for a very short time only? What is the complete background of the extraordinary exhibition-size Asian dolls? And what about the rare early portrait of a Russian Cossack which does not appear in any Lenci catalog or ad, but whose head construction indicates production pre-1923? The historically elite cavalry guard Russian Cossacks had figured prominently in the political upheaval in Russia 1917-1922 and it is likely, but not certain, they inspired Elena Scavini’s model. Nor is it known if the doll was designed as a portrait model of a specific hero. And so the questions go on and on.

The dolls presented in this article, and featured in the upcoming Theriault Marquis auction “Lenci Art” are from the private collection of Elaine Romberg, who astutely studied and sought these early examples, appreciating not only their beauty and rarity, but also their importance in the Lenci story. For more information visit www.theriaults.com or call 410-224-3655. x