Customer Reviews

Great Empresses and Queens Paper Dolls in Full Color (Empresses & Queens)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Please take the above review from the woman who rated this for a child with a grain of salt. These paper dolls are not meant to be cut out and played with.They are beautiful historical treasures, especially helpful for me as a theatrical costume designer. As for the nudity. What she refers to is the doll of Cleopatra, who is not nude, she is wearing a historically accurate, sheer muslin gown with exposed breasts. When my 12 year old was studying Eqypt she used this picture as a guide for a portrait she had to do for an Eqyptian museum. It is a lovely lovely depiction and is not the least bit sordid.

Mr. Tierney's works have always been breathtaking, and thiscollection is no different. Each of these ladies is shown in apositive light of their native culture, and the loving attention to detail that the artist gives to each of them shows a great love and respect for his art and subjects. The little synopses of each lady's life leave you wanting to know even more. Tom Tierney is an artist with a capital A. If anyone has a daughter and wants to show her strong, influential role models, look no further than this collection.

Tom Tierney has done a fantastic job in portraying the women selected, which isn't easy since there are no portraits left of some of them. I think the best likenesses were those of Liliuokalani and Princess Grace (somewhat different from "Grace Kelly Paper Dolls"), although Eleanor of Aquaitaine looks a bit like a store mannequin. The best costumes are those of Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Josephine and Princess Grace's wedding dress.
One of the reasons I didn't give this book 5 stars is that not all dolls are drawn in the same scale which is a little distracting when turning the pages (Elizabeth I is especially small). Another reason is the decision to portray a number of the women in profile, which gives them less character (the doll of Cleopatra being an exception). Finally, Maria Theresa of Austria was a glaring omission.
If you want to introduce your child to history as it was, not dressed up to suit your own morality, buy this book. It might inspire them to study history in depth.

I have to warn anyone buying this for a young child (and I don't know any adults who play with paper dolls) that there is quite a bit of detailed adult nudity in this book. I bought this for an 8 year old and the detail of women's private parts to be cut out and played with seems quite inappropriate to me. One of the dolls actually had the nude picture AS the outfit. She starts clothed and you dress her nude! Another "queen story" speaks of a lesbian liason the queen had. The politically correct crowd might like that but be warned for you in the other camp. This book has some beautiful costumes for some queens but the 2 nude queens and 1 lesbian story make it totally unacceptable in my book. I find many other paper dolls like Little House, Shirley Temple and Polly Pratt appropriate for the actual "paper doll" age girls.