Austin Doll Collectors Society: June 2024

Member Sharon Weintraub did a program on Hertwig and Company half-bisque and all-bisque doll families. She said that Hertwig was founded in 1864 in the city of Katzhutte, Germany, producing porcelain and earthenware items, including dolls. By the 1880s, it was the main employer in Katzhutte. Hertwig was generous to its employees, providing them health insurance, banking services, and even a swimming pool.

Sharon told the members that in 1910, Hertwig received a patent for a dollhouse doll with a bisque torso and head. Slots in the shoulders allowed the insertion of fabric arms ending in bisque hands and the dolls had cloth legs with bisque feet. In 1914, these half-bisque dolls were featured in the company's anniversary catalog. She displayed one set that represented a peasant family, including the grandfather and grandmother, the mother and father, a young son and daughter, and a maidservant. The adults were only available in sets, but the children could be purchased separately and came in a variety of sizes. For this reason, the adults dolls are much harder to find. Hertwig was very clever when it came to cutting costs, so the dolls' cloth arms doubled as their sleeves and the fabric lower bodies as the men's pants (the girls and women came in simple cloth skirts and aprons). Sharon noted that collectors have often updated the dolls' outfits by adding sleeves and fancier outer garments, as with the little girl doll in this set.

She also displayed a pair of half-bisque dolls known to collectors as the “city children” because they have fancier molded clothing. There were no adults in this set. Like the country children, these dolls came in a variety of sizes and even as shoulder head dolls.

Sharon displayed a doll with a city girl shoulder head that had belonged to friend. The friend's mother had found the doll in a trash bin in the 1930s and later gave it to her when she was a little girl.

The doll is on the typical Hertwig cloth body with bisque lower arms and china lower legs. Both French and German makers sometimes placed heads on elongated bodies so that they could advertise the doll as a larger size and give buyers the impression that they were getting more doll for their money.

Sharon shared other family sets of dolls created by Hertwig. One consisted of eight tiny all-bisque dollhouse dolls in their original box, ranging from the grandparents to two children. An old note in the box dated the dolls to “circa 1926-1927.” She explained that these dolls were made of precolored bisque. Originally the slip used for bisque has white and the complexion coat had to be padded on and refired; around WWI, German companies began experimenting with a precolored bisque that already had a pink tint, saving the step of complexion coating. Hertwig extensively used precolored bisque for its all-bisque dolls and novelties, often going a penny-pinching step farther and cold painting the features, rather than firing them in, so that they may wear or wash off over time.

She also displayed this all-bisque dollhouse family of a father, mother, and son in their original clothing and still attached to their display card; she noted that the set should have also included a little girl, but the card was torn and that doll was missing.

Sharon said that Hertwig was very skilled at creating cute outfits from inexpensive materials to make its dolls more appealing to consumers. She passed around a pair of boy and girl all-bisque dolls dressed in their original matching outfits of felt and rayon ribbon as examples.

Sharon told the club that Hertwig often created dolls in boy and girl pairs. She displayed a matching all-bisque boy and girl, jointed at the shoulders, in molded outfits from the 1910s. As is often typical of Hertwig pairs, their side glancing eyes are painted so that they are looking at each out. Sharon also shared two all-bisque girls, one in a molded cowboy costume and the other dressed in a Native American outfit; she told the club that there were matching boy dolls, but she had not yet been able to add examples to her collection.

This little precolored all-bisque boy and girl are dressed in their original net bathing suits.

Also in their all-original outfits is this pair of tiny Black all-bisque dolls.

Member Jan Irsfeld bought this Dollikin by Uneeda Doll Company. She told the club that when she was a child she wanted a Cissy fashion doll by Madame Alexander, but her parents bought her a less expensive Dollikin instead. Jan bought this doll to replace her childhood doll and restored and redressed it.

Member Elaine Jackson shared her newest acquisition, a Sunny Sue Bendy doll designed by Joseph Kallus. She has the matching boy, Sunny Sam, already in her collection.