Paris Collection: French Doll Fashions & Accessories [Hardcover]

A thorough study of French lady fashion dolls and their high fashion ensembles and accessories. The exquisite Parisian dolls and their tiny gowns, hats, gloves, purses, jewelry, parasols and other belongings are featured in numerous illustrations and 60 color photographs out of 158 photographs. Paris Collection also offers nine patterns for creating your own antique doll dresses. 192 pages.

The Paris Collection by Sylvia Mac Neil is a concise and wonderfully thorough presentation of the clothing and accessories of French "fashion dolls," the elegant poupees of mid to late 19th century. The Paris Collection is a detailed study of doll dresses and full ensembles including gloves, hats, purses, boots, jewelry, even ivory-handled parasols. These particular dolls, chosen for their variety of body-types and faces as well as for their matchless beauty, are each shown in the specific apparel worn at the distinguished and fashionable places of Paris during the period, the Tuileries, the bois de Boulogne, the Luxembourg Gardens and the Paris Opera House. Sylvia Mac Neil is able to stunningly capture both the elan and the evocative styles that the dolls embody.

Superbly illustrated with 60 color photographs and line drawings, The Paris Collection has significant value to all doll collectors, cultural historians and to those who wish to reproduce authentic fashions, as patterns are included of every dress featured in the collection.

Ms. Mac Neil, an expert on fashion dolls, has traveled frequently to Paris in her research. She has made use of much 19th century literature on the subject, from both sides of the Atlantic, including La Poupee Modele, Godey's Lady Book, Peterson's Magazine and The Lady's Friend. The Paris Collection also includes a rare selected listing, never before compiled, from commercial directories identifying the prominent doll shops and manufacturers in Paris between 1860 and 1880 which specialized in clothes and accessories for poupees. This is virtually the definitive book on the subject.

Sylvia Mac Neil has been a doll collector for over 20 years and a respected dealer of French dolls for 19 years. She specializes in antique French poupees-the fashionable Parisian lady dolls as well as their clothing and accessories.

For the last 10 years her business has required taking frequent trips to Europe. While there, she has done extensive research in libraries and museums such as the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France. She has also used the opportunity to study doll collections in European museums such as the Musee National de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and the Museo Romantico Provincial in Sitges, Spain.

Ms. Mac Neil is a graduate of Butera School of Art in Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked in the art field as a fashion illustrator, as a fine arts painter of watercolors and as a commercial artist. She and her husband, James, live in West Barnstable on Cape Cod.