antique german dolls
Kestner, Kammer and Reinhardt, Armand Marseille, Otto and Dressel, Heubach are just a few names to mention when it comes to antique German dolls. These doll makers were the favorites of girls in rich and well-off families all around Europe.
Dolls manufactured before the 1930’s are considered antique, since it is hard to tell which exact decade they were made in if they do not carry their original clothing and/or pieces.
Antique German dolls were produced between the mid eighteen hundreds and the early post war years of WWI. In the earlier stage of European doll making, most of the production consisted off fashion dolls, which characterized grown up ladies with dainty and refined clothing, in style at the time. It was very common for these dolls to come with an entire line of clothing for different occasions.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, “dolly faced” baby/ child like dolls were starting to be made. Character faced dolls (with live looking expressions of different emotions) became a favorite after the world wars. A lot of these dolls are completely made of porcelain, as delicate as they were beautiful; they became very popular amongst collectors of antique German dolls.