US - MISC. MANUFACTURED WOOD DOLLS

Elastic Strung Segmented Wood Cartoon Character Dolls

Felix The Cat photo thanks to private collector

Many different manufacturers made assorted cartoon character dolls in a arrangement of strung simple wood parts. A wood doll must have a wood head. Many of these cartoon dolls are mistakenly called "wood dolls", but since they have a compo head on a wood body then they are truly composition dolls with a wood body. I will list some of the compo dolls here and mark them accordingly. Ideal Toy Company - designed by Joseph Kallus to have the look of a simple wooden doll. Pinocchio (compo head) King Little (compo head) Jiminy Cricket (compo head) Gabby (compo head) The Albert Schoenhut Co. created some jointed wooden toys representing popular cartoon characters. "Felix The Cat" was one of Schoenhut's most popular. Felix was available in 4", 8", and a special 24" display size. "Barnie Google"

The House of Seven Gables Dolls
 

photo thanks to  BJ Male

The House of Seven Gables had several different craftsmen making wooden reproduction dolls for them to sell as souvenir dolls from this landmark's gift shop.  The 1985 book "The Art of Dolls 1700-1940" by Madeline Osborne Merrill (published by Hobby House Press, Inc.) describes these dolls:  "20th century copies of an early wooden dolls. Both about 9" height. Doll on right purchased in 1940. Made expressly for the gift shop of the 'House of Green Gables' in Salem, Mass., by a succession of individual craftsman. Sold dressed or undressed. Still available in 1973 in three sizes."

F. Weber & Co Artist Mannequins - Philadelphia, PA
The F. Weber & Co. business has been supplying US artists with all types of art and drafting supplies since the turn of the century: ink, pen tips, rulers, triangles, T-squares, tape dots, and etc. The F. Weber & Co. is a big name in art supplies yet it still took me by surprise when I discovered that the F. Weber company also manufactured or distributed (under the company name) finely detailed wooden artist mannequins at the turn of the century.

The 1985 book "The Art of Dolls 1700-1940" by Madeline Osborne Merrill (published by Hobby House Press, Inc.) illustrates and describes an artist mannequin with a very realistically carved male head and well proportioned jointed body with hinged ball joints:

'Although dressed as a doll, and used as a plaything, this 19 1/2" (49.6cm) figure was originally produced as an artist's model. As such, it is not truly a play doll. Body stamped in purple ink: "F. Weber & Co., Philadelphia." Original priced of $420 is penciled on back. Sticker of art store reads: "B. L. Makepeace Inc., Boston, Mass." Company still in business in 1983.'

Scarey Ann was a lathe turned toy/doll made by Dr. Chinn and the Poppy Doll Company in the 1920's in Atascadero, California. They were typically about 5" tall. These toys/dolls/automata were made of California redwood painted in enamel. A lever in their back controlled their moveable parts. There were several characters in these toys: Chinaman, Scarey Ann, Santa Claus, Happy Hooligan, witch, sailor and tramp.

June Beckett states "A Scarey Ann is a doll, albeit an odd one; a delightful toy produced by a man with a delicious sense of humor. Any visitor to our collection beams forth with a smile the minute a Scarey Ann lever is pressed and SOMETHING pops up and down." (May 1984 Doll Reader article "It's A Toy, It's A Doll, It's a Scarey Ann!") . According to June Beckett a very special Scarey Ann was found representing "Mickey Mouse" with a paper sticker on the front of the doll "Copyright 1927, Walter E. Disney"! This doll was taller than the typical Scarey Ann.

The following information comes from Coleman's Encyclopedia of dolls pg 947 (also see Coleman's encyclopedia of dolls - page 254):

"Poppy Doll Co. 1925-30 and later. Atascadero, CA. made a line of novelty and character dolls of California redwood. The dolls were hand decorated and had a lever in back which controlled their movable parts.  Factory agents were Corcoran & Laycock. In 1929 Troxell merged with the Poppy Doll Co. Their most famous dolls were the Scarey Ann line.

1928: Dolls included a clown, Santa Claus, a sailor, and tramp and a witch.
1929: Happy Hooligan and a Chinaman were added to the doll line."

rare Scarey Ann  "Picaninny" photo thanks to Chuck Daniels

Scarey Ann"Picaninny" showing hair lifted after lever is pushed photo thanks to Chuck Daniels

Scarey Ann "Little Chinese Girl" photo thanks to Chuck Daniels

Scarey Ann showing lever to activate movement photo thanks to Chuck Daniels

"I attended the "Antique Roadshow" over the weekend. The "Scarey Ann" that I have is extremely rare, in fact all "Scarey Ann" are rare. The fact that mine is in the original box, and has the original head wrapper as well as being called "Picaninny" make it worth around $250-$300 dollars. Without the box or wrappers they are worth $50 dollars at the most. Richard Wright, the appraiser, said unfortunately these dolls are not "In Demand" simply because not many exist and people don't really know about them. Can't quite figure out THAT logic, but hey I've heard of dumber things."

19" character face Photo thanks to Regina A. Steele

Schoenhut dolls were made by the very famous, quality toy manufacturer; Albert Schoenhut Company in Philadelphia, PA USA. These dolls were made by steam pressing wood heads under high pressure into metal molds. They were either sold with carved hair or wigged. Details were sometimes recarved to clean the heads up after they were removed from the press mold. They had a heavy coating of flesh colored oil based enamel. The details of the early dolls were hand painted.  Schoenhut dolls are famous for their fabulous SPRING jointed machine carved bodies. Two springs in each joint provided precise tension so these dolls could maintain even gravity defying poses yet move smoothly. Two patents were awarded to the Schoenhut Company for their unique doll bodies. One for the walking doll and the other for their spring hinge jointed bodies.  As cost cutting measures, the last jointed dolls were made with decals and/or stenciled features, and then the company started stringing these dolls with elastic. A cheaper to produce line of babies with cloth bodies was also introduced.  FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION ON THESE DOLLS, PLEASE VISIT: Miss Rosie Schoenhut's Page

All original Joel Ellis photo thanks to Regina A. Steele Lady by Joel Ellis photo thanks to Ruth L. Ruder

Joel Ellis - Vermont Novelty Co Joel Addison Hartley Ellis (1858-1925) patented the jointing of a wooden doll. The hands and feet are cast lead. The bodies, arms and legs were lathe turned rock maple. The heads were moistened end grain maple steam, pressure molded like the Schoenhut dolls. The bodies are unique with metal hands and feet. The joints are mortise and "split tendons". I suspect that the split tendon was slightly squeezed into the mortise for a tight fit, creating the tension needed to hold a pose. There are several business names associated with Ellis:  Vermont Novelty Co Ellis, Britton & Eaton The Cooperative Manufacturing Co. The heads and faces of these dolls are generally in bad shape. Steam pressed wood will try to expand when exposed to moisture, thus popping off any paint. Also they were likely given a lot of use. Ellis gave up making dolls in 1873.  In 1878 Sanders, Martin, Taylor, Johnson and Mason met to discuss the possibility of rebuilding Ellis' burned out factory. Each of these men went on to make wood dolls similar but not identical to Joel Ellis' doll. There is great confusion when trying to figure out who made which doll.  See the split tendon jointing on an undressed Joel Ellis doll.  use of photo permitted by  Theriaults

Mason Taylor doll COMPO HEAD use of photo permitted by Theriaults

George W. Sanders - Jointed Doll Co George Sanders patented and produced composition over wood socket swivel headed dolls. They were made from hard maple with cast lead feet which were painted to be blue boots. They also had black bands painted around their waists. The hip joints and knee joints are very different from the Joel Ellis dolls.  Frank Martin Martin produced dolls with an "elastic or spiral spring" at the shoulder - 1879 patent.  Compo Head Springfield Dolls which are usually grouped with the Springfield wood dolls: Mason & Taylor Co. (Henry Mason & Luke Taylor) Mason & Taylor dolls had revolving compo heads - 1881 patent.  C.C. Johnson Johnson made a doll with a molded compo over a wood core head - 1882 patent (It was similar to the 1881 Mason & Taylor patent).

Central and South America

Dressed Religious Statuary, Santos, Crèche figures, and dolls are made by some fabulously talented carvers in Mexico, Central, South America and the Philippines. The Coleman's encyclopedia #1 page 647 notes that "Peter Wellponer brought Grodner Tal dolls to Mexico". Were these the finer "crèche type figures" that are still made by Northern Italian artists, or the cheap, minimally carved, peg-wooden dolls that were mass-produced and typically associated with the Grodner region of the Alps?

Segmented Cartoon Dolls

need a  photo

I saw wood segmented dolls and jointed dolls that are obviously greatly influenced by Joseph Kallus dolls made by a carver in Mexico. Although most were well made and well finished, there were some with an occasional sharp exposed nail point. These dolls represented several different famous characters but I did not see any indication that these carvings were properly licensed.  These were cute. The variety was really good and they were very charming. I was tempted to pick up a few of my favorite cartoon characters.

More information about Native Dolls from the Americas from The Lotz Doll Pages