June 9, 2024, Meeting

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.

Member Kenneth Reeves shared this beautiful composition by Madame Alexander of the child movie star Margaret O'Brien. The doll is all original. 

Member Sylvia McDonald brought this boy and girl pair,  two ceramic choir singer figurines.

Member Kathy Tovo displayed these two charming primitive dolls. The larger one is wood and cloth and the smaller doll has a composition head. 

January 14, 2024, Meeting

Member Jenell Howell did a program on doll designer Joseph Kallus. 

She said that she was inspired by member Elaine Jackson's collection of segmented composition and wood character dolls. Jenell explained that George Borgfeldt and Company in 1912 contracted with Rose O'Neill to produce dolls and figurines based on her Kewpie characters and the company advertised for a sculptor to make a model. Kallus, a 17-year-old student at the Fine Arts College of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, submitted a plaster model and was hired to design the dolls. This began Kallus' long and creative career in doll design. When WWI disrupted the import of German bisque dolls, he founded the Rex Doll Company in 1916 to produce composition Kewpie dolls that were distributed by Borgfeldt. Rex Doll also made composition carnival dolls that were distributed by the Tip Top Company. Two years later Kallus received his first copyright for his design of Baby Bundie. 

Kallus became president of the Mutual Doll Company in 1919, which produced not only composition Kewpies and Baby Bundie dolls, but also Bo- Fair, Dollie and Vanitie, which had specially designed joints. He resigned from Mutual in 1921 and the next year established the Cameo Doll Company, which existed until 1982 when Kallus assigned all his properties to Jesco, Incorporated. Cameo produced Kewpies for Borgfeldt, as well as Baby Bo Kaye and the comic strip character Little Annie Rooney.  Many of the dolls and toys created by Cameo through the late 1940s had composition heads and segmented wood jointed bodies. Examples of these unusual and creative dolls include Joy, Pinkie, and Margie. Kallus also designed dolls for other companies, such as Felix the Cat for Schoenhut and Pinocchio for the Ideal Novelty Toy Company, cartoon characters such as Popeye and Betty Boop, and even company advertising mascots, such as the Hotpoint Man.

In 1944, Rose O'Neill died and Kallus was assigned the rights to Kewpie, and later to Scootles and Ho- Ho. Over the years Kallus would license, or attempt to license, Rose O'Neill designs with companies such as Strombecker of Chicago, Milton-Bradley, Incorporated, and American Character Doll Company, but Kallus was difficult to work with, demanding and litigious.

 In 1976, thieves broke into Kallus' home and stole his original models for Kewpie and other dolls, as well as other materials. By the 1980s, Kallus was struggling to protect his Kewpie patent from companies and individuals making unauthorized copies. In 1982, he started negotiations to sell the rights to Kewpie to Jesco, but on June 26th, he was fatally struck by a vehicle while crossing the street. Kallus' daughter completed the transfer. The following year, Jesco started making Kewpie dolls. 

Jenell brought this bisque Kewpie. The Kewpie started Kallus' long career in dolls. 

This example of a composition Kewpie by Cameo was the childhood doll of member Sylvia McDonald. The doll is wearing a dress crocheted by Sylvia's grandmother. Sylvia members her parents struggling to restring her beloved doll with a strip of rubber from an old tire inner tube.

Two all composition examples of Scootles, another Rose O'Neill character, made by Cameo. These dolls belong to Jenell.

Examples of Felix designed by Kallus for Schoenhut. One belongs to member Bette Birdsong and the other to Sharon Weintraub.

Kallus designed this Pinocchio, as well as other Disney characters, for Ideal, as well as Knickerbocker. This example belongs to Jenell. 

Two examples of the Margie with segmented wood joints. The doll in blue belongs to member Myrna Loesch and the red clad doll was shared by Elaine Jackson.

This is Pinkie, who belongs to Elaine.

Elaine also brought this example of "Sunny Sam," a "Flexy" doll designed by Kallus for Ideal. His arms and legs are bendable springs. 

This "Kewpie Gal" also belongs to Elaine. She was issued by Milton Bradley under contract with Cameo in the 1970s.