Lenci doll

Lenci dolls are wool felt dolls that feature heat-pressed wool faces with painted features. They typically have intricately made wool and organdy clothing, adorned with elaborate felt flowers, hats and/or accoutrements. They are at the top end of the luxury goods market. Today they are considered highly prized collectables.

The Lenci Company (1918-2001) was established in Turin (Torino) by Enrico di Scavini and Elena (nee Konig) Scavini after World War I, around 1918. They received a patent for their process for pressing the heads in 1919. The Lenci company produced not only high quality dolls, but luxury goods, toys, puppets and household wares, including decorative ceramics that were sold primarily sold in the USA, Europe and Japan. In its heyday they had over 10,000 items in their product line.

In 1933 The Scavini's took on two partners, giving up two thirds of the company. One third went to Bassoli, the company that made the wool felt cloth for the company, and the other third went to brothers Flavio and Pilade Garella, who put up the much need cash to keep the company afloat after the Great Depression. In 1936 the Scavini's sold their remaining interests in the Lenci Company to the Garella brothers. Elena stayed on as its creative director until her husband Enrico died at the end of 1938.

The name "Lenci" originally comes from the family nickname of Elena di Scavina. Who is also known as Helen Konig di Scavini.

The "Early Lenci Period" refers to dolls and other products manufactured when Elena was creative director for the Lenci Company. No cost of time or money was spared to achieve the most exquisite design elements of their product lines and brand. Top illustrators and designers were hired to sketch new styles for doll models and home goods, including Marcel Dudovich.

From 1939-44, under the helm of the Garella's manufacturing turned to war related goods made of wool, including gas masks, blankets and military uniforms. It is unclear if dolls and other luxury goods were made during this time. Around 1943 the Lenci factory was destroyed during a bombing raid. As a result many of the early head molds were lost.

Under the direction of The Garella Goup, Lenci products were streamlined in an effort to be more profitable and in-line with the modern progress of the toy trade. There is no exact date of the switch, so one would assume it was a gradual process through the mid 1970s when there was a distinct change now referred to as the "Later Lenci Period" of manufacture.

While these dolls and products were still finely made, many features that the "Lenci doll" is known for were removed or modernized. A new type synthetic and wool blend felt was used, synthetic hair and different process for forming the heads. As well as flocked plastic, hard plastic, rubber and celluloid dolls were introduced.

There were many different product lines that carried the name "Lenci" and "Ars Lenci" that were made by other companies the Garella Group owned.

In 1978 Beppe Garella (son of Pilade) introduced a line of "reproduction" Lenci dolls, using the few head molds that were salvaged from the basement of the factory. These are known as the "Modern Lenci Period". The manufacture of these doll had transitioned into a cottage-style business model where workers made the various parts and outfits of the dolls from home.

Beppe Garella died in 1992, where by the company was taken over by his children. The company was struggling by the year 2000. In 2001 the company assets, its machinery, molds were sold off in bankruptcy proceedings in Italy.

Description
Lenci Boy and girl dolls sitting together at the Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster

The bodies and the clothing of Lenci boy and girl dolls are made of pressed woolen felt. The bodies were machine stitched up the back and across the shoulders then hand stitched between the legs. This allowed them to wear low cut tops and clothes that displayed their limbs. The faces were pressed on moulds and features were then hand painted, hair was made from mohair and this was stitched in.[1] Felt pressed dolls were very popular in the nineteenth century and just after the first world war. The eyes face sideways, giving the boys a sullen expression and the girls one of loneliness. These dolls have Lenci stamped into the felt of the foot. They were produced in various sizes, sold with various costumes or uniforms. The two dolls in the Judges' Lodgings museum in Lancaster, England have the boy in a burgundy cardigan, and the girl in a blue hat and coat.[2] They were purported to have been made in memory and in the image of a dead daughter.

History

Elena König was born in Turin in 1885. She moved to Germany, where she acquired the pet name of Lenchen which mutated into Lenci when back in Italy. During the chaos of the Great War where Italy fought against Germany, she experimented with felt, and its many properties. She married Enrico Scavini in 1915, and he included felt doll manufacture in the Lenci business- one that was primarily concerned with ceramics.

In 1937, the firm employed 300 workers and the family relinquished control.

The factory was bombed during an air-raid in 1944. The company liquidated in 2002.

In literature

Photographer and author Dare Wright wrote a series of children's books, beginning in 1957 with The Lonely Doll, featuring her childhood Lenci doll, "Edith", as the main character.[3]

References
  1. "Lenci boy and girl dolls". Bethnell Green, London: V&A Museum of Childhood. 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster Description Panel
  3. Coleman, David, "The Unsettling Stories of Two Lonely Dolls". The New York Times, October 17, 2004
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