This very rare doll from the early nineteenth century demonstrates a very innovative design for its day: a spoked wheel of legs which allow the doll to ‘walk’ when it is pushed across the floor. The doll would have originally been costumed in a long dress to hide the leg mechanism, so only two walking feet would have shown at a time. The value of this remarkable hand-carved doll, with its enamel eyes, coiled chignon, jointed arms and delicately painted features, has not been lost on collectors: it sold for $7500 (USD) in auction in July 2012.

// Image via Theriault’s Antique Doll Auction.

Elsewhere on the Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things:

• WWII Parachute Crash Test Dummies
• Christina Bothwell’s glass sculptures
• Morbid kidswear by Blommers and Schumm
• Jane Howarth’s beautiful bird guts
• A strange humanoid creature
• 17th century palm reading chart
• Shary Boyle’s deformed figurines