Buschow & Beck 1910s Minerva tin head Germany cloth body 16" cabinet doll

Description

If you look closely at this turn-of-the-last-century Buschow & Beck doll, you will notice that there is something a little disconcerting about her. Something distracting. Something that niggles.
Without being able to pick her up, I think it would e nearly impossible to determine the underlying cause of that niggliness, so I will simply tell you: Her head is made of tin. It's an unusual material for a doll mostly (I'm just guessing here, but I'm pretty sure about this) because tin is easily dented and, while it is easy to paint, it is also easy to scratch.
Nonetheless, it's a shame that more companies didn't make tin doll heads because there's a serene, enchanting quality to them. Painted tin absorbs light rather than reflects it making it the optical opposite of a material like porcelain or plastic.
The head is in remarkably good shape. Her body is made of stuffed cotton with arms and legs of glazed porcelain. They are the right style to be the original ones but I don't know if they are.
(By the bye, I'm not sure why Buschow & Beck called this style of doll head "Minerva"; the connection is too subtle for me.)
She has a three-piece undergarment set -- chemise, bloomers, and slip. The doll slip is cut from a woman's slip with lace and pin-tucks. She is wearing a small gold crucifix. The dress is made of very light-weight silk with a pattern of elephants and peacocks that probably began as an expensive scarf. It is beautifully sewn, with a lined bodice. I believe that the clothes date from the 1930s.
Yes, I am envious of people who can make such beautiful doll clothes. But only a little envious because if such people did not exist then we would have to live in a world in which there were fewer beautiful things. And how would that benefit anyone?