Kewpie Dolls

First and foremost, what exactly is a Kewpie doll? For starters, the Kewpie doll was created by Rose O'Neill, who was an illustrator, artist, sculptor, author, and a businesswoman. Born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, she won her first drawing contest when she was at the age of 14. She moved to New York where she became a well known illustrator.When she created the Kewpie dolls, it was based on drawings she made of her little brother when she was playing with him as a young girl. The Kewpie dolls were based on her little brothers looks and also his gestures when she was playing with him.Basically, the Kewpie figures were seen as illustrations of love stories in the Ladies Home Journal. It was also featured in the Woman's Home Companion as well as the Woman's Home Journal. It was rather successful and the illustrations also had verses to go with them.The Kewpie dolls were first produced in a small town in Germany named Ohrdruf. This little town was famous for its toy-manufacturers and was basically made out of bisque. Later on, the Kewpie dolls were made out of celluloid.In the year 1949, Effanbee created the first hard plastic versions of the Kewpie doll.The name Kewpie is derived from cupid, who was the Roman god of beauty and platonic love. The early versions of these dolls were made out of bisque and were highly collectible. Today, the original versions of these dolls are now worth thousands of dollars.In 1939, the time capsule in New York World's Fair contained a Kewpie doll. Sometimes mistakenly applied to the troll doll, the Kewpie doll is now one of the world's most valuable dolls in the market.The Kewpie doll is so popular that it became a mascot Kewpee Hamburgers, which was a fast-food restaurant chain and was founded in 1923 by Samuel V. Blair. Today, the one in downtown Lima is the only remaining Kewpee that has the original building structure.The QP Corporation, which is a Japanese food manufacturer, used the Kewpie doll as its logo. Today, it is the current mascot of Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, which is believed to be the only school in the world that used the Kewpie as its mascot.Kewpie dolls have been produced by a lot of doll manufacturers. The original producers were well-known German doll companies, such as Kestner. When the German companies were producing bisque Kewpies, Japanese companies also began copying them without official licenses.Today, modern companies that are producing Kewpie dolls include the German Doll Company, Cameo, Charisma, and R. John Wright as well as others.Kewpie dolls are considered to be one of the most successful dolls ever made. As a matter of fact, vintage Kewpie dolls are now considered to be a very rare collectible that prices for it have been and continue to be very strong. The strongest prices for Kewpie dolls are the ones that are in action poses, with animals and ones that have unusual accessories. However, classic bisque Kewpie dolls as well as the ones with glass eyes and jointed legs is quite expensive.The Kewpie doll is indeed a very successful toy that has captured the toy market all over the world. It is simple and it really did capture the hearts of the people. Its simplicity in design was believed to be the one responsible for making the Kewpie doll a success.As a doll collector, you will find that having a Kewpie doll will really make your doll collections very attractive. Kewpie dolls today are quite rare especially the ones that do action poses or the ones that are holding unusual accessories and pets. These days, you can only get antique Kewpie dolls in the internet and from other collectors. If you are lucky enough, you may even get to find a Kewpie doll in a garage sale. And, if you are really lucky, you can even get the Kewpie doll at a bargain price.The Kewpie dolls are indeed very successful in the toy industry. If you are really a doll collector and you really want to have a great collection of dolls, then you may want to consider including a Kewpie doll in your collection.
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