Cuno & Otto Dressel Dolls 1873-1942 German
The Dressel family doll and toy business was founded in the 1700’s in Sonneberg, Germany, it passed from one generation to the next, by 1873 the company was known as the Cuno & Otto Dressel Factory. Dressel purchased bisque doll heads from noted manufacturers such as Simon & Halbig, Heinrich Handwerck, Ernst Heubach, Gebrüder Heubach, Limbach, Armand Marseille and Schoenau & Hoffmeister and was supplied by other small doll factories and home workers. Dressel’s largest American client was Butler Brothers.
Over the years the Dressel factory produced dolls of bisque, celluloid, china, composition, hard paste, leather, papier mache, wax or wood; Täuflinge or baby, child, lady and portrait character dolls. Some Dressel doll trade names are 1906+ Jutta doll molds 1348, 1349. 1909+ Bambina a bear and Eskimo doll, 1910+ Jutta Baby doll molds 1914, 1920, 1922 (Ernst Heubach), the Jutta doll is named after Countess Jutta, a patroness of Sonneberg. 1912+ Poppy Doll (School boy), Superior, Victoria (Hering & Sohn), Holz-Masse – wooden and composition dolls.
1898-1903 Dressel Portrait Character Doll Series, 10-15 1/2″ tall, bisque socket heads with portrait face, glass eyes, composition jointed body. Some Cuno & Otto Dressel character doll names are; No. 2736 Admiral George Dewey doll, M. Miles doll, Admiral William Thompson Sampson doll, Admiral Winfield Scott Schley doll, Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee doll, President William McKinley doll, Richmond Pearson Hobson doll, Buffalo Bill Cody doll, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt doll, a Farmer doll, Old Rip doll, Uncle Sam doll, the marked Hexe Witch. All dolls were dressed in military uniforms or character appropriate clothing, heads are made by Simon & Halbig. Dressel portrait character doll marks A, D, R, S, letters or the Hexe word plus a size number, see below Uncle Sam doll mark made in Germany S 8.
Note: Cuno & Otto Dressel doll molds 1767 and 1776 are believed to be dolls created at a later date to commemorate dolls shown at fairs they attended in the respective years, when the company was owned by Johann Phillip Dressel.
Cuno & Otto Dressel Doll Mold Numbers Identified
93, 1348, 1349, 1418, 1468, 1469, 1767, 1776, 1848, 1849, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1912, 1914, 1920, 1922, 2736, 8679. Mold 1418 is a S & H bisque head on a Dressel stamped body, mold 8679 Limbach is a pouty character boy doll attributed to Dressel.
Cuno & Otto Dressel Doll Marks Identified
Some Dressel company family members: Johann Georg Dressel (1686-1740), grandson Johann Philipp Dressel (1735-1804), son Ernst F. Dressel (1797-1870), Cuno Dressel (1829-1893), brother Otto Dressel (1831-1907), Otto Dressel Jr. (1857-1926), brother Ernst Dressel (1858-1939), nephew Dr. Hans Dressel (1858-1942).
Cuno & Otto Dressel Doll Resources: Cieslik Encyclopedia of German Dolls book pages 57-62. Jean Bach Dictionary of Doll Marks book, pages 36-37.