Very RARE, Moravian Church cloth doll, BENIGNA, with original history & purse

Description

From a private collection**....
As shown and described on page 183,
"Cloth Dolls"-Judd,
this is a rare handmade,
Moravian
cloth doll
called Benigna
from the
1930s
representing one of the
four choirs of the church
. The doll is named after Countess Henrietta Benigna Justina, (married sister*) the daughter of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. Benigna founded the first Moravian School for Girls in 1742 which was the first Protestant boarding school for girls in America and her costume is copied from those worn by Moravian women around 1872.
Handmade by women from the
Bethel Circle of King's Daughters of the first Moravian Church of Bethlehem,
t
hese special dolls are highly prized by Moravians down through the years, seldom sold and usually passed from family member to family member.
Her pale blue cotton dress has stitched edging around the sleeve cuffs, an organdy apron and matching  collar with colored knots atop a colored, laced trimmed bodice, lace trimmed petticoat and pantaloons, crocheted hat with colored ribbon and a tiny cotton bag, similarly fashioned, that contains a card with
her story written in tiny script.
(see photo) She has a cloth covered wired body and limbs. The cloth head is hand painted and the hair styles are each slightly different. You can read all the fine print on the little cards that are inside the purses. We have a very rare selection of these Moravian dolls as shown in the photos. See also page 149, "16th Blue Book.
**This listing is for ONLY the
ONE
doll described.
NOTE:
There would be four dolls in a complete set of these tiny dolls: The Widow who wears white accents, *
The Married Sister wears blue accents,
The Single Sister has pink and the Little Girl has cherry. The 3 larger dolls are about 5 1/2" tall and the little girl is 4 1/2" tall. Each is similarly dressed but with different colored accents.
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