The Arcades Project - Operi

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[The Doll, The Automaton]
I was always, among human beings, the only doll1 with a heart.
-Amalie Winter, MemoiTen cineI' Berlincr PuppcJjt'ir Kinder VOIl 5 his 10
]allren lind)!'ir deren Miitler (Leipzig, 1852), p. 93
VVhere, instead of the clock, the eyes indicate the hours.
-Franz Dingelstedt, Ein Roman; cited in Adolf StrodtmaJU1, Dicllterpr'!file,
vol. I (Stuttgart, 1879), p. III
"The clever Parisienllcs ... ,in order to disseminate their fashions more easily,
made use of an especially conspicuous reproduction of their new creationsnamely,
tailors' dummies . ... These dolls, which still enjoyed considerahle importance
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were given to little girls as
playthings when their career as fashion figurines had ended." Karl Groher, Kinderspielzeug
aus alter Zeit (Berlin, 1927), 1'1'. 31-32. 0 Fashion 0 Advertising 0
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They are the tme fairies of these arcades (more salable and more worn than the
life-sized ones) : the fonnerly world-famous Parisian dolls, which revolved on
their musical socle and bore in their arms a doll-sized basket out of which, at the
salutation of the minor chord, a lambkin poked its curious muzzle. When Hack­
Hinder made use of this "newest invention of industrial luxury" for one of his
fairy tales, he too placed the marvelous dolls in the dangerous arcade which sister
Tinchen, at the behest of the fairy Concordia, has to wander in order finally to
rescue her poor brothers. "Fearlessly, Tinchen stepped across tile border into the
enchanted land, all tile while thinking only of her brothers. At first she noticed
notlring unusual, but soon the way led through an enonnous room entirely filled
with toys. She saw small booths stocked witll everything imaginable-carousels
with miniature horses and carriages, swings and rocking horses, but above all the
most splendid dollllouses. Around a small covered table, large dolls were sitting
on easy chairs ; and as Tinchen turned her gaze upon them, the largest and most
beautiful of tllese dolls stood up, made her a gracious bow, and spoke to her in a
little voice of exquisite refinement." The child may not want to hear of toys that