The doll has a porcelain head, hands, and half porcelain legs and feet. The body is cushioned. There is lace at the top, at the end of the arms, and on a bonnet/hood that is not attached to the dress. The dress, body, and painting looks like it's been done by hand. On the back of the dress are little metal buttons attached with little string. On the feet are little socks. Underneath the dress is a gown with lace on the bottom. There are no tags or markings anywhere on it. I was told it had to be at least 80 years old.
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Without markings, the doll will be hard to identify. Take it to a doll dealer.
She is neat and does look old.
I am relatively new to formal doll identifying, just been admiring, and if I saw something that really tickled my fancy, collecting since I was a child (so MANY years). So if you are up for the challenge to figure out who she is, it could be fun for you!
If she were mine, I would show her to everyone I know and put her on other doll websites as everyone has their own little niche and someone may recognize her immediately.
This one is a little bit of a challenge because there have been millions of dolls made around the world...and finding the right person the first time out is a little like finding a needle in a haystack :( but it is always possible!
The second easiest way to start is to go to Google images and type in her description, like the height, hair color, dress style etc. to piece together info.
You can do this same type of search in eBay to learn more by reading posts.
SIDEBAR--DO NOT USE ACTIVE AUCTIONS TO DETERMINE VALUE THOUGH...ONLY SOLD AUCTIONS WILL TELL YOU WHAT SOMEONE WILL ACTUALLY PAY FOR A DOLL. Value is also different from profit...value is what you can charge, profit is how much you will actually make--usually two different things if you are paying fees to sell, like online or on consignment.
Back to the search techniques...You can do things like figure out if the hair is human or synthetic by burning a strand:
This YouTube video talks about that. www.youtube.com/
You can try to see what she is stuffed with (always risky because you don't want to damage), but typically really old dolls were stuffed with things like sawdust or cotton (not modern synthetic materials)
You can try to figure out of the body is porcelain or bisque (can help you determine age):
en.wikipedia.org/
A couple of my favorite sites are below that may be useful to you, although some seem to recently have broken links (GRR):
www.thesprucecrafts.com/
antiques.lovetoknow.com/
There are also a list of doll museums that I have been considering putting my my bucket list to call to see if they help with identifications. If one is near you, maybe you could take her for a road trip:
www.thesprucecrafts.com/
I hope this helps! She is unique! I hope you can learn a lot about her and that she has some value if you are trying to sell her.
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