General description: Doll showing a woman from the fishing village of Blankenese, which is now a suburb in the western part of Hamburg. The fisherfolk of this village wore various forms of costume referred to collectively as the Blankeneser Fischertracht [Blankenese fisherman’s costume]. This doll’s costume does not really fit with the description of any of them properly apart from the silver band (Liefband) around her waist with a long silver tape hanging down at the front. However, the large silver buckle which should be worn at the front is lacking. The doll’s costume most probably represents a festive dress of one of the richer village inhabitants.
A very good description of the Blankeneser Fischertracht can be found (in German) in the booklet Blankenese Trachtengruppe 1984—2014 (available at and there is some further information at .
Dimensions 17 x 10 x 6 cm
Date when acquired 2024
Original Date Unknown
Source Folklore doll made by the German company Stoll®.
Flea market, Göttingen, Germany
Body
Plastic doll with movable arms but rigid legs. Her features are painted on. Her blonde hair is drawn back from a central parting and is twisted into a bun at the back of her head.
Clothing
She is wearing a long dress made of grey brocade sprigged with red flowers and grey leaves. The cuffs of the long sleeves and the hem are edged with white lace. Over the dress is a plain dark blue Bosdoog or bib with a front and back. It has a piece of silver braid running at a slight slant horizontally over the middle. A piece of white lace is sewn to the round neck, mimicking the ruff worn on festive occasions.
Most of the “bib” is covered by a shawl (made of moss green silk with a very fluffy green fringe. This is nothing like the Blankenese shawls (see below).
An apron made of grey silky material covers the front of her dress’s skirt. Around her waist is an unusual tie called a Liefband. It is made of the same grey silk as the apron. A long piece of silver braid hanging down at the front is sewn to the Liefband. The cased silver or gold buckle that would normally attach them together is lacking in the design of this doll’s costume.
Under her skirt, she is wearing a pair of blue knickers with white lace around the leg opening. Her black shoes (lacking the usual silver buckle) and short white socks are painted on.
Her cap is made of the same grey silky material as her apron and is edged with a narrow piece of silver braid and a white lace frill.
Accessories
None.
Background information
Blankenese has a long history as a fishing village on the banks of the Elbe River. In 1060, Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen built a provost’s residence at the site of an older settlement situated on a hill there. Until 1927, Blankenese was an independent town in Holstein and then it was merged into the town Altona by law. In 1938 Altona was merged into Hamburg with the Greater Hamburg Act.
The Blankeneser Fischertracht [Blankenese fisherfolk costume] was worn in the 19th century. It consisted of three costumes: a workaday costume (die Alltagstracht), a Sunday costume (die Sonntagstracht) and a festive costume (die Festtagstracht). These also varied according to whether the person was rich or not. This doll’s costume is closest to the festive costume of a richer inhabitant, though the details are not correct; for example, usually a skirt, shirt/blouse and bib were worn with a jacket, not a dress and bib. Other details are also not correct, see below.
The cap worn by this doll represents the Batiste caps worn either indoors or under outdoor beribboned brocade bonnets [Hörnerkappe (horned cap)]. The Batiste caps were edged with a gold or silver zig-zag edging [Silberzackenborte] and fine Brussels lace. Such caps were a sign of a woman’s attachment to her home.
The bib — called a Bosdoog in the local dialect, but Brusttuch in High German — was usually made of silk brocade and had an upstanding collar or ruff made of Brabant lace (4—5 cm wide or even up to 7 cm). This was in imitation of the ruffs worn at the Spanish court. The workaday bibs were made of plain material as shown in this doll. I am not certain what the band of silver braid sewn across her chest is supposed to represent.
A specialty of the Blankenese style was that the folded silk shawl was worn in such a way that it did not fall over the shoulders. The shawls were made in three different styles: the double eagle shawl[Doppeladlertuch], the rose shawl[Rosenmustertuch] and the striped shawl[Bandstreifentuch]. For festive occasions, the women wore a plain white Batiste shawl with Brussels lace edging. The shawl worn by this doll not only does not look like any of the shawls worn by the women of this village, but it is also wrong in how it is worn. This type of shawl seems , however, to be a common feature of many dolls made by Stoll®.
The shoes were always black with a silver buckle. The festive socks/stockings were also white, while the day-to-day ones were blue.
A 3- to 4-cm-wide silver brocade or corded silk band (Liefband orLeibband) was worn around the waist, held together at the front by a large buckle. A long brocade band (140 cm long, 6 cm wide) with a fringe at the bottom hung from the buckle. This band could also be made of costly material with silver or gold thread worked into it. The buckle was made of chased silver or gold.
One important thing that is missing from the doll’s costume is a heart-shaped brooch called a Hartje. The people in this village originally wore neither engagement nor wedding rings. Instead, they wore a shirt clip [Hemdspange] called a “Hartje” (meaning little heart; Herzchen in High German), in the shape of heart with various figures attached to it (angel, angel’s head, ship, fish, shoe, Kringel (a pretzel-like shape)] according to the profession of the groom. As the beloved was considered to be angel-like, each Blankenese Hartje was surrounded by angels. She may not have a Hartje as she is single, however.
Rich Blankenese women also wore a necklace consisting of a number of rows of larger or smaller garnets from Bohemia. This is accoutrement is also lacking in this doll.
Source(s) of information
Blankenese Trachtengruppe 1984—2014 (
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