Beautiful 1930 17" Arranbee R & B composition bride doll with sleepy golden eyes

Description

Composition dolls like this are made of a material similar to paper-mache except that it is much more breakable. And much, much heavier. Composition is made from sawdust mixed with other things -- glue, usually, and sometimes cornstarch, wood flour, and/or tree resin. I suspect lots of other materials may well made this way into composition doll. (This is in addition to the glue, which in the 1930s, when this doll was made, could be made of almost anything that could be dissolved. This is something best not thought of.)
(Just to be reassuring, Elmer's glue is not made out of cows or any other animals. There is a drawing of a cow on Elmer's labels, but that is a reference to the fact that in the first half of the 20th century the glue was derived from milk protein. It no longer derived from any animal product because the chemistry of sticky things has progressed. The fact that the cow is a bull is a clue that Elmer no longer contains milk protein.)
By the 1950s, composition dolls were replaced by plastic ones: Plastic is lighter, more durable, and waterproof. Many a composition doll had her life cut short by being dropped on a tile floor when limbs or heads would shatter. (This doll has cracks along the original seam in her hand. The replacement wig holds the pieces firmly into place.) Left out in the rain, or even in a damp laundry room, a composition doll's extremities could melt in disturbing ways.
The fact that composition is made up of cheap materials made it quite a bit cheaper to make dolls of composition rather than porcelain or bisque. However, the shift to plastic had an artistic cost: The texture of composition allows doll makers to create faces that are more realistic than porcelain faces, which can be lovely but don't have the pellucid quality of glazed composition. Porcelain reflects light in ways that is entirely different from the look of skin. Glazed composition, like skin, refracts light in a way that is very slightly translucent.
This doll (marked RB on the back of her, signaling that she was made by the R&B doll company, also known as the Arranbee Doll Company) with her artfully made-up eyes demonstrates the luscious quality of high-end composition dolls, even as they age and become crazed with fine lines.
This 1930s doll was issued as a bride doll, which explains why she is wearing make-up. Her original clothes have been replaced by a handmade early 1950s in cotton eyelet with a gauzy attached slip. Her eyes are the amber color of a lioness.