Oh dear.....the poor thing!!!

This is a composition doll from the 1910's or 20's.
She has had a hard life. She unfortunately seems to have had previous repairs using plaster that was not sanded smooth or contoured.
She has a layer of bad over-paint on top of lumpy plaster on top of hardly-there original paint which is barely hanging on to the cracking skim composition layer. There are a lot of layers to remove before she can start her renewal!

Every old doll deserves a chance.
This was likely some child's cherished doll so it too deserves to be restored.

The first thing to do is to try to uncover and document the original features so that they can be restored or re-created.
A bit more original eye paint is uncovered No original eyebrows are left.

The poor thing is beheaded and unstuffed to start repairs.
The stuffing is excelsior....shredded wood. A typical stuffing in early composition dolls.
The voice box is extracted. It is silent.

The voice boxes can usually be repaired so that they make noises again. It was originally advertised that they say 'Mama' or cry like a baby. This one, when I tested it, sounded more like a indignant goose. These were not high-tech sound machines!
The usual problem is that the bellows that forces the air through the squawker has stiffened with age. The bellows needs to be replaced.





The next steps involve chipping off old cracked paint and that is messy! Without a good workshop I do that outside....but where is our nice Spring weather???? It has been cold and soggy far too long!
But at least I got the bellows replaced. This doll will squawk again.

Ah....some nice weather....the work continues and my deck is littered with pieces of cracked paint now.

And here is the result.

All the cracking and defective layers are gone leaving bare composition exposed in most areas. The composition has some issues that  were likely caused by past exposures to moisture.
Composition is basically a sawdust and glue product. It does not like moisture!

The missing bits will get filled in with epoxy putty.

Here we are in the middle of rebuilding/filling/priming.
This poor doll is needing many layers. Each layer has to dry 24+ hours then gets sanded and recontoured for the next layer.
Slow but steady progress......

On to the paint booth for many layers of skin tone.

She has finished the journey through the hair and make-up department.

A new muslin body replaces her old shredding one and her repaired voice box is packed inside with the original excelsior stuffing.

She gets a simple cotton dress. This one is antique baby dress that was repaired and altered to fit her.