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Lizzy Dripping
Lizzy Dripping is a Victorian rag doll the doll of the working classes in England and Ireland. In contrast with the bisque or porcelain doll, which richer children had and which was often brought out only on Sundays, Lizzy Dripping dolls were made of cotton for everyday play and love. Their clothes were usually cotton or muslin and were a replica of the dresses, pants, jackets and pantaloons worn by children from the mid-1800's on.
Lizzy was a generic name for young Irish maids, girls of 14 or so years, who had left home to work in the Big House. They worked as scullery maids in the back kitchens, and were responsible for cleaning pots and pans, the kitchen floor and any other menial kitchen labor which was needed. They generally worked a six day week, unless "company" was expected to dinner on Sunday evening, in which case they stayed in the kitchen late to cleanup.
This Lizzy Dripping was first made by Mary Ann O'Callaghan for her daughters Rosemary and Florence in 1875. When Rosemary ran away from home in 1898 to marry a German violinist she took with her only three things: her mother's large, white hat, her own Lizzy Dripping, and the tea caddy which her grandmother had willed her.
Rosemary and her husband, Carl, had nine children, six boys and three girls, each of which was born in a different city in either England or Ireland. In the early 1900's, Rosemary made three Lizzies for Tess, Florence and Dorothy, her three daughters. Tess in turn made Lizzies in the 1950's for her daughters Jane and Elizabeth. And Jane made them for her two girls, Andrea and Gillian in the 1970's. Andrea and husband Tom started a family in 1998 and now their daughter, Rosie, has a red-haired and blue-eyed Lizzy.
And Why the Name Lizzy Dripping?
Lizzy the maid lived "below stairs"; being working class, poor and at the bottom of the social scale in the Big House, Lizzy could not afford butter on her bread slices like the rich people who lived upstairs. She spread dripping - which is lard - on her bread.
A great number of Lizzies made their way to the USA in the 1800's, where they worked as maids and housekeepers. As such, they were quite successful. A number turned to pick-pocketing and small thievery and were known to the police as Molly Malones ...... but that is another story.
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