A rare and early Italian crèche figure or doll

A rare and early Italian crèche figure or doll, Naples, 18th century, her face delicately painted and set with glass eyes cast downwards, wearing her original flax wig, her hands painted terracotta, the stuffed body elaborately dressed in her original embroidered silk costume with gold metallic lace embellishments, the underclothes also in place, mounted on a later stand, the doll 15¾in (40cm).

Nativity crèches, or presepi, started life in the 13th century but reached their artistic apogee in Naples during the 17th and 18th centuries. Alongside the expected characters of the nativity, the figural displays were extended to include various characters from contemporary Neapolitan life, from peasants dressed in cotton and wool, to rarer figures of the nobility such as this, dressed in silks.