I am hoping to get some photographs from some of the fine museums in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland to illustrate this document. Keep your fingers crossed here!

A small sample of the Modern Wood Doll Artists from this region

• Anri - manufacturer of fine figurines and wooden dolls
• Almut Augustine
• Dolfi - manufacturer of fine figurines and wooden dolls
• Ursel Erbs - need information about this German doll maker
• Edna Hibel
• Hanna Hyland (originally from Hanover Germany - now living in CT, USA)
• Krahmer Dolls - manufacturer of Kuck in die Welt dolls
• Harald Naber (originally from Germany now living in FL, USA) sells wood/resin copies of his hardwood dolls
• Norbert Sadei - Italy (north or south?)
• Sylvia & Helmuth Schmid
• Inge Tinius (originally from Germany now living in CA, USA)
• Traudel von Röthardt
• Margit & Ernst Wechsler (originally from Germany now living in Nova Scotia, Canada)

Wood dolls credited to  Josef Kubelka  Photos thanks to  Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art

Fashion dolls by Josef Kubelka A fabulous pair of 21"-22" Kubelka dolls are illustrated in "THE ROSE UNFOLDS - Rarities of the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art" page 17. Kubelka was known for his patented (1884) process of inserting human hair realistically into a wax scalp of a doll. Were these were prototypes for the hair insertion technique or commissioned portraits? They are truly stunning and I hope to see them in person at the museum someday. I also hope Rosalie will allow me to post a photo of this fabulous pair of WOOD DOLL ART - keep your fingers crossed here. View the full-length photograph and you will want to make a trip to Seattle just to see these two dolls in person at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art

Grodner Tal "TUCK COMB" Peg Wooden Dolls

These are often referred to as "German" Tuck combs, probably because they were sold via the German Nuremberg Toy Market, and Germany laid claim to this region during WW2.
 

Early Tuck comb photo from Regina A. Steele

6 1/2" Tuck Comb   Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD a small Tuck Comb Doll photo from Regina A. Steele "Tuck comb dolls" are sometimes incorrectly called "Dutch Dolls" perhaps due to the similarity to the word "German" or "Deustch". They are named for their carved hair comb. They are a special style of peg wooden doll. The head and body is turned as one piece. The hair is usually painted with curled bangs and with a painted comb. Early tuck comb dolls had elongated, graceful proportions, nicely carved details, painted slippers, and sometimes with wood pendant earrings. Sometimes you find a doll where the comb was removed at a later date to fit a wig and other headgear.

Grodner Tal Peg Wooden Dolls (no comb)
 

C.1840 21" Grodner Tal Peg wooden doll Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD Early Grodner Tal dolls have more carved details and a fashionable elongated style and a very pointy chin.

c. late 19th century 17" Grodner Tal Peg wooden Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD Later Grodner Tal dolls are often crudely carved. Theriault's stated that this is particular doll is an unusually large size for the time, and is in extremely good condition.

Peg Wooden in old dress photo thanks to Regina A. Steele

 

6-1/2" mid 18th century  Grodner Tal Peg wooden dolls Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

As Theriault's stated, the one on the right has a carved bun in the back of her head, which is a rare coiffure on a tiny dollhouse doll.  The doll on the left has carved ringlets over each ear and a very shapely waist.

close up of Welsh doll  Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

C.1830 German "tuck comb" doll dressed in authentic Welsh costume. The German doll making industry offered some serious competition to the more expensive English dolls. This doll is dressed to represent the remote hamlet of Bala in Wales. She wears a wool dress, lace scarf and a fur top hat. 15" carved wooden head and torso with carved bosom, and slender waist. Her facial features are well carved and painted: pointy chin, obvious nose, subtle cheeks, blue eyes, black eyeliner, single stroke brows, closed mouth, blushed cheeks, and shaded hair painting.

Nicely Carved Wooden Betty photo thanks to Walt Weyer

SHOULDER HEADS Elegant doll heads were produced in the Grodner Tal region and sold through the Swiss and Nuremberg Toy Markets. Early shoulder heads resembled the early tuck comb dolls (see the early tuck comb above) with elongated facial features and elaborate, detailed hair styles. They often wore popular dangling earrings.  WOODEN BETTYS - Groden Valley (1880 - 1940)  "Wooden Betty" doll heads were produced in the Grodner Tal region at the same time as their famous inexpensive Penny and Peg wooden dolls. These were low end, inexpensive items. These were mass-produced from 1880 - 1940 and are usually attached to coarse cloth bodies (see "The Ultimate Doll Book" by Caroline Goodfellow).  Wooden Betty heads were chunky and quickly carved. Early examples had much more carved details. Like all other Grodner Tal dolls, the quality of these quickly deteriorated into extremely simple blocky shapes that were minimally carved and quickly painted. They were 3" - 4" photo of the back of the Wooden Betty

Poupards
 

5 1/2" Early German wooden "Fatschenkinder" Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

"Poupard" is the French name for "swaddling clothed dolls". Poupards are a very old form of simple "folk doll". Traditionally these are non-jointed shapes painted to represent a baby in swaddling clothes. Wooden poupards are typically turned on a lathe, the back side might be flattened so the doll would not roll away and lay face up. The head may have carved or simply painted features. These very early dolls may have become a representation of baby Jesus and thus became popular in many parts of the world. Of course wood doll artists from the Groden Valley also made some for the world toy market. There are many different names for these simple dolls. Poupards were first made from wood but later they were made from a variety of cheaper materials like composition and papier-mâché. The quality of these popular dolls declined rapidly as attempts were made to mass-produce them, and their great popularity died.

After seeing a photo of a contemporary poupard carved by the German artist, Elizabeth Pongratz, I was inspired to re-kindle some interest in this old folk doll. So I wrote an article for the Woodc@rver's Ezine, an on-line carving magazine, where I published some of my original patterns for making a pouppard and gave several suggestions how carvers could customize their creations.

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Simple Folk Dolls/Toys that dance at any slight movement

Bristle Dolls - click image to see the whole set - Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

Tiny Clown / Jointed Necklace   Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

GERMAN WOODEN HEAD BABY DOLLS - Sonneburg
 

need a photo  of a wooden-  headed doll of this type.  ~coming soon~ illustration of  body  style

Wooden headed Motschmann-type doll (DOLL NEWS, Summer '95): These dolls were created from the mid 1850's to the late 1880's out of several different materials including wood. Some included crier mechanisms. These wood dolls are distinguished by their Motschmann-type body construction.  More to come - an illustration of a "Motschmann-type body".

INDESTRUCTIBLE WOOD DOLL

The following quote comes from a Victorian "Harpers Bazaar" Magazine c.1881. It talks about a wood doll as a potential Christmas gift:
 
 

Children's Christmas - VICTORIAN DOLLS -from Harper's Bazaar, December 31, 1881 A third novelty, more valued for its durability than beauty, has the doll head cut from a solid piece of wood, and this wooden head can he banged about without breaking. The head moves, and the body, which is also of wood, is painted as the fine French dolls are; and some of these wooden dolls say "Mamma" and "Papa." In small sizes, such dolls, without the speaking attachment, are $1.25, and these are chosen for children whose bump of destructiveness is large. The well known indestructible heads, with short hair of sheep's wool that will wash and comb, are made with prettier faces than when first offered.

Which doll does this ad refer to?

• Regina A. Steele found the following information in one of Coleman Encyclopedia:

Dolls called Indestructible were sometimes composition heads - by Superior, Cuno & Otto Dressel and Schilling (had sheepskin wig) - all German. 1880's.......... Thanks Regina.
• Was this "1881 Wood Indestructible doll" a very early proto-type of an "Bebe toute en Bois"? Schilling was one of the manufacturers who produced "Bebe toute en Bois" for the French market In 1901-1914 , labeling some with the Schilling "winged angel" trademark.
• The French doll maker Emile Jumeau was also making a doll called "Indestructible Bebe". These looked like young girls. They had inset glass eyes and looked like a wooden version of his famous bisque head dolls. They had composition bodies, some could have had speakers but the dolls noted in Harpers Bazaar had wood bodies. Jumeau bebe dolls also had traditional wigs instead of the skin wigs noted above.
• The French House of Huret was also experimenting with wooden heads on wooden bodies at this time. But these were fashionable lady dolls, not babies!

Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

Wooden Headed German Baby dolls (late and small "bebe tout en bois"?) These 10" baby dolls have solid dome wood head and carved curled baby fist on a five piece composition body. They have blue or brown glass inset eyes. The hair is shaded brown, the eyelashes are painted, and they have an open mouth.  Theriault's states that these dolls are from Circa 1920 with the following mark on a paper tag: "D.R.G.M. No. 4441857 Fabrickemark deponirt Germany".

Alpine Girl early 20th century  Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

Carved Hair mystery This is a really cute little girl wooden doll with a well rounded head and subtle carving. Her facial features are painted: blue eyes and feathered brows. The short hair is textured by carving tool marks and blushed a honey blonde.  She has her original outfit: a white blouse under a red and black beaded wool dress with a black straw bonnet.  Is she German or Swiss? When was she made? Who was the artist? I have gathered some evidence to tentively credit this doll to a German artist. She bares a good resemblance to dolls available as late as 1960 from Germany. Did these early dolls inspire a lot of East German doll makers to make VERY similar dolls? Could this be an early Kuck in die Welt doll?

photo from a private collection Krahmer Doll "Kuck in die Welt" Doll ("Have a Look at the World")  dressed in a regional costume photo thanks to the the more-than-dolls-shop

"Kuck in die Welt" ("Have A Look At The World") by Krahmer Dolls Judy Glaeser states, "Krahmer-Dolls are the result of teamwork now for two generations.  Design, dressmaking and carving is the work of 3 persons. Our wood-carver is a 52 year old man. He has been working for us since more than 30 years. I'm the designer and now I am also responsible for the more-than-dolls-shop." Hildegard Krahmer made her first dolls for her own children in 1947.  Her slogan and the brand name for the Krahmer doll became "Kuck in die Welt" ("Have A Look at the World") which has become well known even outside Germany. In the middle of the sixties, Hildegard Krahmer's daughter-in-law, Marion Krahmer, joined the company and soon added her own ideas and designs to the collection. In 1975, she got a master certificate as a dollmaker and became the head of the company after her mother-in-law died. The clothes are designed by Marion Krahmer and produced in her own company.  These dolls are stamped in the neck, each doll is carry a dated hang tag and the sign "Kuck in die Welt" is protected [copyrighted]. Many of the "Kuck in die Welt" dolls have been dressed in regional costumes. There are never more than 100 dolls of one model world wide. There are at least 3 basic styles of "Kuck in die Welt" dolls currently being made:  "classic style" - carved wooden heads on cloth body. The arms are disk jointed at the shoulders with thin fingers defined with stitching. Hefty legs are disk jointed at the hips. This is the style that is most reminiscent of the oldest dolls. babies with a carved head and a simplified cloth body. carved wooden heads, hands and feet on a cloth body.

Swiss Souvenir Wood Dolls or Brienz Dolls

Carved hair wooden dolls from Switzerland are typically dressed in regional costumes. Most have a natural wood finish, yet others seem to have a bright "high color" almost orange complexion. The Peter Huggler Firm, Adolf Thomann, and his son Paul made them.

Paul Thomann took over the patents for these dolls when he opened his souvenir shop in 1951. Some of Paul's earlier wood dolls were sold undressed to Swiss craft stores, but most were dressed in the traditional Brienz and Bernese regional costumes. In 1960 Paul's wife, Greti, made the costumes (Trachten) and the dolls were only sold from their Brienz souvenir shop. Paul may have sold the patents to these dolls in 1995 or 96, because I have heard that these dolls are back in production and for sale in Switzerland again.

I love these Swiss souvenir dolls. Only recently did Doll Reader discover the artists who created these wonderful dolls. Doll Reader tracked them down in Switzerland and reported a good history of these dolls SWISS DOLLS (Doll Reader 2/95). Another Thomann doll can be seen in DOLLS magazine (DOLLS 10/94) held by a curator of a museum who found this doll especially charming. I wrote to Paul but he retired right before my letter got to him.

BODY CONSTRUCTION: There were several different body styles in the Swiss souvenir type doll. I hope that I will be able to eventually illustrate each one with a nude photo of the doll. A photo of a group of these nude dolls is illustrated in Doll Reader 2/95. Swiss shoulder-heads were also carved to be placed on cloth bodies or perhaps to replace broken china heads.
 

click to see larger image One of the typical jointing methods used on the Swiss Souvenir dolls Photo by JD Lotz

Photo thanks to Doll Reader

Photo thanks to Regina A. Steele

12" Swiss wooden character doll in original costume Photograph courtesy of Theriault's Annapolis, MD

Photo thanks to Diane Lott doll full length

use of photo permitted by Doll Reader

Swiss Shoulder-heads Doll Reader 2/95 article shows 3 portrait doll shoulder-heads created by the Swiss firm of Peter Huggler - possibly carved by Adolf Thomann. "These 3 dolls inspired me to create my wood dolls with such unique personality!". . . . . Jean Lotz