Bottle Doll Marga Jane and Her Children

Name: Margarette (Marga) Jane and her Children, Jacob and Martha

Made by and When: Charisse Davis of Cyd’s Heritage Dolls and Thangs, 2005

Material: Wine bottle, cloth, synthetic hair, paint

Marks: Harriet / Cyd / 2005 is on Marga’s back; Cyd is written on the back of the boy’s pant leg; the artist’s signature is on Marga’s hang tag.

Height: 13 inches; children are 6 and 4 inches

Faces: Painted facial features with black synthetic wool-type hair for Marga and her son

Clothes: Marga wears a tan floral blouse, tan-striped full-length skirt, and a tan tea-stained apron.  The body is a fabric-covered wine bottle. Jacob wears tan pants. Martha is wrapped in a white lace bunting and bonnet.

Other: This doll came with a handwritten story written by the artist that reads:  Marga (Margarette) Jane Motley.  Martha-child of the plantation, fathered by white man in ownership of a Mill Marga Jane worked at.  And Jacob Dahoney, her other child of slavery, no knowledge of his father; clearly, he was Black.  I love making the stories of my family in folk art dolls. 

Slideshow

Use the right or left arrows to view the slideshow.

Slideshow Captions: 1st photo, close-up of Marga Jane holding Jacob; 2nd photo, a close-up of Martha’s hand-painted face; and 3rd photo, a full-length photo of Marga Jane holding Jacob.

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