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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ladybranch, post: 48659, member: 44&quot;]Vintagerobin, your &quot;Frozen Charlottes&quot; are delightful! The only one I have, my grandmother&#039;s, isn&#039;t displayed and dressed as well as yours. Someone, probably my mother, just wrapped a piece of coarse material around her. She is missing part of one arm.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]12185[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>No doubt most of you know how these tiny unjointed china dolls presumably got their name, Frozen Charlotte, but if someone hasn&#039;t.... BTW, they were also call &quot;penny dolls.&quot; It wasn&#039;t unusually for a little girl to have several of these because they were cheap and fitted well into doll houses. Their name comes from the folk ballad &quot;Fair Charlotte&quot; by W.L. Carter. It really is a bit morbid little ditty that was probably told to the little girls about them back whenever. It was probably an object lesson?? I was only going to give the website that had the folk ballad, but it seems that site is down. The last time I was there in 2007 it was working. At that time I copied the ballad and info:</p><p><a href="http://www.ohiokids.org/oe/yt/10f.shtml" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ohiokids.org/oe/yt/10f.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.ohiokids.org/oe/yt/10f.shtml</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Frozen Charlottes are a type of unjointed china doll popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The name came from Fair Charlotte, a well-known American folk ballad attributed to William Lorenzo Carter. It is believed to have been composed some time between 1833 and 1860. The ballad tells the tale of a beautiful young woman who set out in a sleigh with her lover, Charles, on a bitterly cold night to attend a ball fifteen miles away. Her mother warned her to wrap herself in a blanket to keep warm, but:</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot; &#039;No, no, no,&#039; fair Charlotte said </i></p><p><i>And she laughed like a gypsy queen </i></p><p><i>&#039;To ride in blankets muffled up, </i></p><p><i>I never can be seen.&#039; </i></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The couple rode off into the cold and, after traveling a mere five miles, Charles remarked:</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot; &#039;Such a night as this I never knew, </i></p><p><i>The reins I scarce can hold.&#039; </i></p><p><i>Fair Charlotte said in a feeble voice </i></p><p><i>&#039;I am exceeding cold.&#039; </i></p><p><i>Away they ride through frozen air </i></p><p><i>In the glittering starry night </i></p><p><i>Until at length the village inn </i></p><p><i>and the ballroom were in sight. </i></p><p><i>They reached the door, Young Charles stepped out </i></p><p><i>And held his hand to her </i></p><p><i>&#039;Why sit you there like a monument </i></p><p><i>that hath no power to stir?&#039; </i></p><p><i>He called her once, he called her twice </i></p><p><i>She uttered not a word </i></p><p><i>He held his hand to her again </i></p><p><i>And still she never stirred </i></p><p><i>Then swiftly through the lighted room </i></p><p><i>Her lifeless form he bore </i></p><p><i>Fair Charlotte was a stiffened corpse </i></p><p><i>And word spoke nevermore. </i></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Of course there was a lesson to be learned from this tragic tale, and many young girls who later played with Frozen Charlottes probably were warned:</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot;Now, ladies, when you hear of this </i></p><p><i>Think of that dreadful sight, </i></p><p><i>And never venture so thinly clad, </i></p><p><i>On such a winter&#039;s night.&quot;</i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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