September 12, 2021, Meeting

The Austin Doll Collectors Society had its first in-person meeting in over a year, congregating at member Sharon Weintraub's home. Sharon gave a program on Asian character dolls by German and French bisque doll makers. She explained that although the spice trade between Asia and Europe dates back thousands of years, by the 16th century European merchants, often with military support, had seized control of the trade routes, gaining a foothold in the East. The Chinese Qing dynasty losses to Britain and its European allies in the First (1839-42)  and Second Opium Wars (1856-1860) forced China to grant Western companies favorable trade concessions and concede territory to their control. In 1853 American Commodore Mathew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor, beginning the re-establishment of trade and contact with Japanese, who had closed off their country to most foreigners in 1639. By the 1870s, these trading concessions had expanded into colonial control, with Britain, France, and the Netherlands claiming territories throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The explosion in magazines and newspapers helped bring images and stories of Asian nations and people to the average European. Schoolchildren learned about their countries' colonies and their peoples. Advances in printing made colorful children’s books widely available and affordable and fanciful stories and characters from the East began to appear in the pages of children’s storybooks. All of the interest in the East inspired both French and German doll companies to create dolls representing Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, and other Asian peoples. In some cases, the dolls were little more than colorful stereotypes while other manufacturers strove for more ethnically correct features and clothing. 

The cheerful Asian infant doll belongs to member Jenell Howell. He is by J.D. Kestner and is on a ball-jointed toddler body, rather than the more typical bent limb baby body. Next to him is Mold 1329 by Simon and Halbig, dressed in an antique outfit of a Manchu noblewoman, including the unusual platform shoes.  

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Another Asian baby by Kestner, this time in a diminutive all-bisque version. He wears his original, but now fragile, silk outfit. His "slippers" were created by painting the soles of his bare feet black and gluing cord around the edges.

Two more Asian characters by Simon and Halbig. The smaller doll is all-bisque and dressed in an antique embroidered kimono.  She has molded blue slippers with upturned toes.  The other doll is Mold 1129 and is all original.

These 4.5-inch high charming cherubs are Chin-Chin Baby by Gebruder Heubach. Each carries the Heubach square mark faintly incised on the soles of the feet. Made to compete with the popular Kewpie doll, the Chin-Chin Babies came in a variety of headdresses. The girl in the center has her original paper tags.

Another Chin-Chin Baby in a bright orange and blue cap next to a Queue San Baby by Morimura Brothers of Japan.  The two dolls are often confused, as the Queue San is clearly a copy of the Chin-Chin. However the Queue San Baby is larger, with rougher bisque and with less distinct modeling.

All original, this beautiful baby is by Armand Marseille. Incised on the back of the head is the name "Ellar" inside of a six-pointed star. Marseille produced heads for other factories and distributors, but just who "Ellar" is remains a mystery. 

German companies produced a variety of all-bisque Asian dolls. The little lady is the crocheted blue kimono is by Carl Horn and is just 1.75 inches high, including her yarn wig. The minute man in the red cap is by Hertwig and Company. He has a painted dropping mustache and has a little yarn queue inserted in the back of his cap.

French doll makers also produced Asian dolls.  The largest doll is a bit of a mystery. He has a French fashion style shoulder head on a fully jointed twill-covered body with bisque lower arms and lower legs with bare feet. The clothing is old and fragile.  The two tiny dolls are Lilliputiens. Just 2.5 inches tall, these all-bisque dolls were available in a wide variety of costumes, including French regional and historical dress, storybook characters, and ethnic dolls. Like all Lilliputiens, they have swivel necks with a molded loop and painted features.  The pair wear their original costumes and the man has a braided queue inserted into the back of his bald pate.

Elaine Jackson brought her 1950s Kathe Kruse doll to share.

February 3, 2020, Meeting

The refreshment table was decked out in red and covered with sweet treats in honor of upcoming Valentine's Day.

Beautiful vintage Madame Alexander Cissy dolls from member Myrna Loesch, each offering a heart-shaped candy box, decorated the tables.

Member Sharon Weintraub did a program on Gebruder Heubach character dolls.  She told the club that Brothers Christopher and Phillip Heubach purchased an established porcelain factory in1840 in Lichte, Thüringia, Germany (Gebruder means brothers).   In 1882, the company registered its mark of a sunrise symbol with "GH" inside.  The factory produced porcelain figurines and other decorative objects, with the first mention of the production of doll heads occurring in 1910.  The factor produced bisque character heads and all-bisque dolls, often using sculptors from nearby art school.  In 1910, the company registered another mark of Heubach in a square. The company declared bankruptcy in 1938.

Heubach supplied bisque doll heads to other factories, which helps explain why the heads are found on a wide variety of bodies and why some heads may be found with no marks.  The bodies range from very cheap crude composition or cloth to higher quality kid and ball-jointed bodies. High production at the factory lead to worn molds, so mold numbers were blurred or lost.   This causes confusion among modern collectors trying to authenticate a doll. However, Sharon said, even with missing mold numbers, there is no mistaking Heubach’s style.  For its painted-eye characters, Heubach used intaglio eyes, in which the iris is indented, giving the eyes depth.  The all-bisque dolls have starfish hands with the middle and ring fingers jointed. 

These three Asian character dolls are called Chin-Chin.  They are each 4.5 inches tall and faintly incised under their feet with the Heubach square mark.  The girl has her original paper labels

This 7.75 inch tall Heubach smiling girl is called "Coquette."  She has pillar legs.

This 8-inch tall version of Coquette has jointed legs.  There are no visible marks.

Wearing her original ethnic costume, this 8.25-inch tall girl is incised on her back "9558" and "3." 

Known among collectors as the "three-bow girl," this charming child is 9 inches tall and incised "10490//3" on the small of her back. 

Heubach used precolored slip for some of its bisque heads, the slip already having a pink or skin tone.  This 3.75-inch tall Coquette shoulderhead is made of a pale pink precolored bisque.  The head is incised on the back with square Heubach mark and “1” over “Germany” and “7856.”   There is also a small green artist’s mark; these green marks are often found on Heubach heads.

These two googly-eyed kitties each carry the Heubach square mark on the back of their necks.  They are 6 inches tall, have composition bodies textured to look like fur, and wear their original outfits.

Heubach also made dolls with glass eyes.  This 9-inch tall Gebruder Heubach 6971 character head is on a good quality composition and wood ball-jointed body. 

This 11-inch tall doll has a bisque head on a 5-piece flapper body and wears her original dress. The head is incised “8192 Germany Gebruder Heubach G 5/0 H.” 

The 8192 flapper mold was made in a variety of sizes.  This petite example belongs to member Sylvia McDonald.

This 11.5-inch tall bisque pouty child is on a good quality ball-jointed composition body.  The bisque head carries the Gebruder Heubach sunburst mark and there is a blurred "Holtz-Masse" red stamp on the body, indicating that this head was supplied to the German firm of Cuno and Otto Dressel.

These lovely ladies have bisque shoulder heads on crude fabric bodies with composition limbs. Early collectors mistakingly thought the bodies were replacements and put the heads on what they thought were more appropriate fashion leather bodies. The lady in white is incised "7926 " and has a closed mouth.  Her sister is 12.25 inches tall and has an open mouth with four tiny teeth. She is mostly likely mold 7925.

Sharon warned members that after the fall of the Berlin, high quality reproduction Heubach characters suddenly started appearing on the market. Originally, they were offered as “reissues,” but soon some German dealers began offering rare "all original" Gebruder Heubach characters, often in what was claimed to be their original boxes. The heads also began appearing on elaborate candy boxes and other fantasy items.  Many are offered on eBay or appear at auctions. Some of these dealers seem to have an endless supply of rare all-original dolls, especially when one considers that the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and by this time every nook and cranny of every old factory and warehouse in the former East Germany has been thoroughly searched. Yet these sellers appear to have warehouses of them, all looking suspiciously fresh for something that is supposed to be around a century old. Sometimes the boxes are a bit battered, but the dolls look as clean and bright as the day they left the factory (which was most likely last month). Although the clothing is supposed to be nearly a century old, there is no fading, surface dust, or melting.  The Heubach character heads are also appearing on crank automatons attributed to the German company of Zinner and Sohne.  Zinner made inexpensive toys and used dolly-faced heads on its creations.  Sharon said authentic Heubach heads were used on rather crudely made dancing or toddling automatons.  This example has a cardboard and wood cone-shaped body on wheels and when wound, spins in little circles.  The head is incised with he Heubach sunburst and ""7604."  On the bottom of cone, written in a childish scrawl with pencil, is "Altis 1912."  In another version, the doll actually "walks" by rocking back and forth on unsteady legs.

This Heubach character boy  belongs member Elaine Jackson.  His mold was worn when he was cast, so his features are not as sharp and some of the details lost.  There is no mold number.  She also brought the little all-bisque girls to share.

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