I have inherited two Victorian dolls. Having examined them carefully, and tried to research them, I am wondering whether head/shoulder units and ready-made lower limbs could be bought by a local seamstress, who would have used them to make up dolls to sell locally. Has anyone come across any documentary evidence, e.g. advertisements, that this sort of thing happened?

Doll One has an untinted bisque head/shoulders, under which the stuffed fabric body has been inserted; with wooden lower limbs inserted at the 'elbow' and 'knee'. Doll Two has some type of 'wax' head/shoulders on a stuffed fabric body, again, with lower limbs inserted into the stuffed fabric upper limbs. The stitching on the bodies has been done by hand, not machine. The clothes are hand-made - some sewn, some crocheted - and have probably been replaced over the years.

Neither doll has any identifying marks/numbers, which is one reason why I think they might have been made in the locality in which they were bought. The earlier bisque-head doll belonged to a little girl who was born in Glastonbury in December 1858, and the later 'wax'-head doll to her four daughters, who were born in Gloucestershire in the mid-1880s. Both dolls have been played with a great deal, as evidenced by cracks, chipped nose, scuffed shoes, partly dislocated arms. These are dolls that have been loved to bits (almost literally!).

Owl