| Dolls Shine at Theriault's 5-Auction Weekend in Newport Beach | |
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Click on any picture on this page to open a larger and better quality image of these beautiful dolls.
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| Original Sample Card of Wigged All-Bisques |
Theriault's often showcases a unique antique doll auction during the January auction weekend, and this year was no exception, with the Hertwig & Co. Archives auction, 1890-1937. This auction was particularly well-received and it had an extra bonus of providing a wealth of identification and research information for antique collectors of all-bisque, china and half dolls.
Brief History of the Archives
Hertwig & Co. was a porcelain factory located in Katzhutte in the Thuringian region of Germany. The factory produced children's dolls, decorative objects, and porcelain novelties. The factory began production in 1865, and continued in some form until the 1950s. When the factory was taken over by the East German government, few people knew that inside the factory was an archive of historic showroom samples boxes, with original inventory tags. In the 1980s, a government-owned company looted the archives and sold many of the sample boxes to unknown private buyers in Berlin and London to raise some hard, Western Currency for the government--presumably, these boxes reside unrecognized in private collections.
However, before the looting occurred, the Sonneberg Toy Museum was allowed to choose select objects for the museum collection. Additionally, the Hertwig family had removed some of the choicest objects to a well-hidden location. The saved items were brought together by the Hertwig family, photographed in the Hertwig & Co Archives catalog (which is available from Theriaults as a hard-bound book, through their Gold Horse Publishing division). Thanks to these archives being made public in this book and auction, there are many, many unidentified china dolls, kewpies and all-bisque dolls residing in private collections that can now be identified as made by Hertwig & Co. I highly recommend the hard-bound book for all collectors of all-bisque and china dolls, as well as collectors of Kewpies, half dolls, or bisque figures and novelties.
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| Original Sample Cards and Kewpies |
Prices at the auction were very strong, and items sold at or above estimates, with the choicest sample cards of all-bisque dolls and china dolls selling well above estimate in almost every case. Highlights include a large sample box of porcelain and bisque dolls that sold for $3,200, a card of very varied bonnet head dolls that sold for $3,700 against at estimate of $600/$900. and a sample box of bisque bonnet dolls with red muslin bodies that sold for $2,600. An extremely lovely sample card of bisque charakter-puppen dolls that sold for $6,400 against an estimate of $2,000/$3,000. . I am happy to report that some of these sample cards were sold to museums, including Angel's Attic in Santa Monica, California which purchased the bisque charakter-puppen dolls sample card for their collection.
Many undecorated sample bisque figures sold very reasonably, mostly for between $100 and $500 each. Sample cards of bisque cupids sold for between $300 and $500 each. A lovely sample box of all-bisque bathing beauties sold for $1,750, and two boxes of sample snow babies sold for $2,700 and $3,500 respectively.
The Brief History of the Archives was adapted from "Hertwig & Co. Archives, 1890-1937 by Florence Theriault--the entire history is available in that book.
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| Original Sample Cards of cupids, dolls, and other bisque pieces |
Part I: Automata Auction and "May I Have The Pleasure Of This Dance" Auction
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Denise Van Patten, © 2001. All rights reserved. Photos by Denise Van Patten
