A composition doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of composition, a composite material composed of sawdust, glue, and other materials such as cornstarch, resin and wood flour. The first composition dolls were made in the 19th century. They were marketed as unbreakable, compared to earlier more fragile dolls.

Background
Many antique German and French bisque dolls from the 19th century combine a bisque head with a ball-jointed body made of composition. In 1877 French dollmaker Jumeau introduced the Bébé Incassable, with a bisque head portraying a young girl and a fully articulated composition body. With realistic glass eyes and contemporary fashion styles, thousands of Bébé dolls were produced for an international market. The French Bleuette doll from S.F.B.J. has a jointed composition body with a bisque or composition head. The composition Bleuette was produced from 1905 to 1958.

In the United States composition dolls were hailed as an improvement in doll making from the fragile bisque and china material previously used. Two types of composition manufacturing processes were used: cold-press and hot press. The cold-press composition manufacturing process was invented by Solomon D. Horsman in 1890s. Hot-Press composition began around 1920 and was an improvement in the processing.

Some early celebrity dolls were made of composition, like the Baby Peggy doll from Louis Amberg & Sons, which was a success in 1923. The American Ideal Toy Company began making composition dolls in 1907. They produced over 200 variations of dolls throughout the composition era. Their Shirley Temple doll was one of the most successful celebrity dolls. First produced in 1934, millions of the composition Shirley dolls were produced. Composition doll manufacturing lasted until the late 1940s in the US, when plastic began to be used for dolls.

Composition dolls overtook the market for bisque dolls in the early 20th Century. Hailed by American dollmaking companies as unbreakable compared to bisque (also often called porcelain) dolls, the novelty of the new material for doll heads, coupled with World War I, helped to bring down the once mighty German dollmaking industry, and helped to make America the premier dollmaking country of the early to mid 20th Century.

What is Composition and What is a Composition Doll?: Composition is generally a mixture of glue mixed with sawdust. Heavier and denser than paper mache, composition is easily molded and is thus an excellent material to make doll heads. Composition was used to make doll bodies for many years, from approximately the late 1870s, long before it was widely used to make doll heads. Since the material a doll head is made from determines the type of doll, only dolls with heads made of composition are referred to as composition dolls.

Dates of Production of Composition Dolls: Composition dolls were made from approximately 1909 through the early 1950s. The height of the market for composition dolls was the 1920s through the 1940s. Today, only the rare reproduction or art doll is made of composition today.