Jig doll

[2] Today, jig dolls of one kind or another can be seen in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Europe, parts of Asia, and Australia.

[1] The East Anglian Traditional Music Trust (EATMT) reports that the earliest jig doll yet discovered is one from the Victorian Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace dating from 1851.

[2] A female figure, dressed in a skirt, petticoat, bodice and shawl, it is now in the Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, Yorkshire.

[1] Traditional English folk singers and musicians sometimes made their own jig dolls, such as Harry Cox, Billy Bennington and Walter Pardon, all of whom were from Norfolk (East Anglia).

[3] Jig dolls seem to have survived better in East Anglia than other parts of the country; the EATMT has commissioned a collection of them.

Typical versions could represent sailors, male and/or female costumed folk-dancers, African-Americans, Native Americans, Morris dancers, Punch and Judy, Adolf Hitler, even animals such as frogs, horses, chickens, dogs, and cows, etc.

[1] Historical figures such as Harry Lauder and more recent ones such as John Major (dancing on a board bearing an image of Margaret Thatcher) have been made.