Painted wood shoulder head doll with cloth body. Wearing a handmade lined cotton robe and undergarment, with cap matching one side of an accompanying reversible calico doll blanket. The doll laying in a handmade pine cradle with two handmade cushion mattresses. According to a four page letter, the original written in 1860 and sent with the doll from Syria to family in England, the doll was made to the likeness and customs of the land from which it was sent, Abeih (Mt. Lebanon) Syria. The letter describes the layette, and anointing and bathing of newborns, herbs and spices and powders and rituals; as well as a routine within the foreign land. This is a personal and informative account of Middle Eastern family life as observed through the eyes and experience of a mid 19th Century Western woman living in Syria to her family in England. (Doll: approx. 15" tall).

Good commensurate with age. Paint losses, distress and cracklure to the painted wood shoulder-head.