Birmingham Doll Club-January, 2016

The January, 2016 meeting of the Birmingham Doll Club was held at the home of the hostess, Jill S.
Jill gave an interesting and very informative presentation on the jointed wooden dolls made by the Albert Schoenhut Company.  The Schoenhut Toy Company (1872-1935) was Philadelphia toy manufacturer which made a wide variety of wooden toys.  The jointed wood dolls were produced starting in 1911 and continued until about 1928.  Suggested references for identifying Shoenhut dolls includes SCHOENHUT DOLLS-ACOLLECTOR'S ENCYLOPEDIA by Carol Corson, "The Schoenhut Doll Mystique"  DOLL NEWS by Betty O' Sullivan, and the web site OldWoodToys.com.

The earliest dolls had the company name and patent date incised on the back

An applied decal placed on the doll's back was used to identify the company and patent date starting in 1916.  

Schoenhut doll's had a unique construction with holes in the bottom of their feet to fit onto a special stand.  This would allow the doll to be placed into many life-like poses. 

The dolls' shoes were made with holes to match the holes in the bottom of the feet. 

Schoenhut Doll Stand

Later dolls had grooves in their upper legs to allow their stockings to be tied into place (we all hate to have our stockings around our ankles!!) 

This 16/301 Schoenhut doll has her original one piece underware.

Close-up of the one piece underware.

The back of the underware

This is a lovely 19/308 Schoenhut doll.

Pinn family Doll

Toddler doll

these twin boys are 14/205 Schoenhut dolls.

This 21/309 Schoenhut has a sweet expression.

This smiling 16/304 Schoenhut girl looks as if she is about to laugh out loud!

A 14/312 and a 21/313 Schoenhut sitting together.   

A 19/308 Schoenhut girl with a friend. 

Additional 19/308 Schoenhut girl. 

Two 19/308 Schoenhut dolls. 

Original box for the Humpty Dumpty Circus

A Schoenhut clown with animals from the circus

Schoenhut elephant

Schoenhut goat (I love his billy goat beard!)