Comparing person in story to an object unknown at the time?

Question

i want to compare this princess in my short story to a porcelain doll. however, they did not have porcelain dolls during this time, so is it still ok if i compare the two? how about in general? can you compare a person or object to something that exists today but did not exist during the time of your story?

hope that makes sense!

Answer 1

yeah, you made sense, but if you're writing, you want to make things, even made up things, seem as believable as possible, what you're talking about is called an "anachronism", and will throw off your readers connection to the story (IMO)

Answer 2

Doing so is called an anachronism.  Authors have done all the time.  Shakespeare did it.

But I think it weakens the story by pulling the reader out of flow.