Life-like baby dolls dressed as new borns from Roman to Victorian.

In the period from newborn to three months a baby is very vulnerable and its parents very tired, so not many babies of this age get to re-enactments and living histories. This leaves a gap in the picture of family life that we present to the public. In almost every historical period for which any statistics are available, married women had babies frequently, usually at a rate of one every two to three years throughout their fertile years. There were a lot of babies about!

So why not use a doll? A doll can be used quite effectively to portray a very young baby, from birth to three months. It's a useful accessory to a living history role - you can be a mother, a grandmother, even an older sister, looking after a baby. Stage a birth, a christening, a burial ...

Some ideas about babies have remained remarkably constant. In other respects, babies in the past were treated in a way that is radically different from today. How did people cope without disposable nappies, buggies and baby-gros? Did they really wrap babies up like little Egyptian mummies? Did they really have babies?

Babies don't stay small for long, so it's not worth making them lots of tiny authentic clothes - and would you really want the laundry? Dolls stay the same size so you can build up a wardrobe of outfits; they don't need their nappies changing; and they don't yell to be fed. At the end of the day, you put them away in a box, so you don't need a baby-sitter either!

No-one's pretending these dolls look real. They are not “reborn” dolls, or the stunningly lifelike “fake babies” used in films. They are altered and weighted to handle like real babies, so it's easier to carry off the pretence if you want to. Unlike real babies, they won't catch cold if you undress them to show what they're wearing when you do a “show and tell”.

I have put together outfits from Roman times to WW2. Some of the more recent items are genuine antique or vintage clothes. The ones from earlier periods are based on research.
Each garment is individual and unique.
I have read books and original documents; surfed the net;studied pictures; and looked at samples in museums. It's ongoing.
If you think I've got something wrong, please tell me. If I've got it right, well, that would be nice to know too.