A composition doll is a doll

Doll

A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...

 made partially or wholly out of composition, a composite material

Composite material

Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

 composed of sawdust, glue, and other materials such as cornstarch, resin and wood flour. Composition dolls were marketed as unbreakable and hailed as an improvement in doll making from the fragile bisque

Bisque (pottery)

Bisque porcelain is unglazed, white ceramic ware Examples include bisque dolls.Bisque also refers to "pottery that has been fired but not yet glazed...

 and china material previously used. There are two types of composition manufacturing processes: cold-press and hot press. The cold-press composition manufacturing process was invented by Solomon D. Horsman in 1890s. Hot-Press composition began around 1920 and was an improvement in the processing. Composition doll manufacturing lasted until the late 1940s, when plastic began to be used for dolls.

Many antique German and French bisque doll

Bisque doll

A bisque doll or porcelain doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of bisque porcelain. Bisque dolls are characterized by their realistic, skin-like matte finish. They had their peak of popularity between 1860 and 1900 with French and German dolls. Bisque dolls are collectible, and antique...

s from the 19th century combine a bisque head with a ball-jointed

Ball-jointed doll

A ball-jointed doll is any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints. In contemporary usage when referring to modern dolls, and particularly when using the acronyms BJD or ABJD, it usually refers to modern Asian ball-jointed dolls. These are cast in polyurethane synthetic resin, a hard,...

 body made of composition. In 1877 French dollmaker Jumeau introduced the Bébé Incassable, with a bisque head portraying a young girl and a fully articulated composition body. With realistic glass eyes and contemporary fashion styles, thousands of Bébé dolls were produced for an international market. The French Bleuette

Bleuette

Bleuette is a doll that was produced from 1905 to 1960 in France, that was only available to readers of the girls' magazine La Semaine de Suzette, or the English version - "Suzette's Week". Bleuette has a fully jointed composition body. She was 27 cm until 1933, then 29 cm until production ended...

 doll from S.F.B.J.

Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets

The Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets was a large doll making consortium founded in France by the union of a number of major French doll companies including Jumeau and Bru and the Franco-German doll company Fleischmann and Bloedel in 1899. The company went out of business in the...

 has a jointed composition body with a bisque or composition head. The composition Bleuette was produced from 1905 to 1958.

Some early celebrity doll

Celebrity doll

A celebrity doll is a doll modelled after a celebrity.Celebrity dolls have been in production for a very long time. In the 1840s, several famous ballerinas were featured as paper dolls. Also in the 19th century, various military heroes were portrayed as dolls/figures. With the advent of silent...

s were made of composition, like the Baby Peggy

Diana Serra Cary

Diana Serra Cary , best known as Baby Peggy, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie....

 doll from Louis Amberg & Sons, which was a success in 1923. The American Ideal Toy Company

Ideal Toy Company

Ideal Toy Company was founded as Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had invented the Teddy bear in 1903. The company changed its name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938...

 began making composition dolls in 1907. They produced over 200 variations of dolls throughout the composition era. Their Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...

doll was one of the most successful celebrity dolls. First produced in 1934, millions of the composition Shirley dolls were produced.