It is always exciting to me to come across a Lenci I have not seen before, especially one of the rarely seen models, such as the very early dolls made by Elena Scavini herself. So other day when I found by chance, a picture on a german language auction web site showing a pair of familiar looking dolls I was curious about them immediately They were described as a pair of Lenci dolls ( Paar "Lenci' -Puppen, in the original language), and were dressed like a Prince and Princess, in clothes of the Middle Ages, I had managed to get hold of some early Lenci's, and there was a resemblance. The Princess doll, although wearing different outfit, I recognized as the same model as another early Lenci lady, which can be seen wearing a flounced dress shawl and bonnet, in one of the first Lenci ads, in Playthings Magazine. The Prince in the photo, although partly hidden by a table had a distinct Lenci look and reminded me of another early Lenci doll, dressed as a page or minstrel.

The Minstrel has an unusual 3 part body construction , a disk that rotates in the midsection, this disk is higher on one side having the effect of posing him in a low, humble bow. A collector friend and expert, Rosita Siccardi, who has access to a rare early Lenci catalog had positively identified the minstrel, he was seen in the original Lenci catalog, with a group of page boys, or minstrels, dressed in the fashion of the Middle Ages. My minstrel was shown holding his original long necked stringed instrument, a type of a lute.

It made sense to me that with pages and minstrels, Lenci would have made a noble couple, such as a lady and a prince of the castle, to be attended to by the pages and minstrels, but there was no prince and princess pair like this in the original Lenci catalog. However I had no doubt about the lady. The face and arm construction of the princess matched my early Lenci lady doll, her companion the prince will need a closer look. They were auctioned as a pair, that was a start, and the orange of the felt on the Lady's sleeve appears to match, but not proof in itself. However the overall impression is that of a pair of early Lenci dolls made before 1923, from the very early years of the Lenci company , when Elena Scavini was designing the dolls and making them herself. ...continued below