This sweet doll was one of our very best ones, a very large milliner's model doll I named Tasha and sent photos of to Tasha T and had a letter back in Tasha T's own hand commending the doll and her wonderful original 1830's clothing. The doll went through our house fire which the letter and clothing and leather body did not survive. Jack cut away the sodden and smoked leather body and saved just the smoked and soggy head and her wooden limbs. I have not been able to bear to look at it these years! Dearest friend Rachael Kinnison undertook to make a new shapely body, correct in form and proportion. She painstakingly scraped away the ruined varnish, and forbore to repaint other than the hair color. The original painting of the soulful brown eyes and brows and all the features is intact. This leaves a very pale doll, but was a choice between results. Rachael spells the name Tascha, and as the doll seems re born to me I have changed my spelling. Rachael made all the clothing entirely by hand and of old fabric, with little piping and details that i have to have a magnifying glass to see! The corset or stays with a little carved busk belong in a museum! The amount of skill and time devoted to the doll are overwhelming. She will live with me now and someday will go to live with Aunt Rachael.
