JDK Kestner King of Doll Makers Bisque Dolls 1820+ German
2021 – Kestner, King of Doll Makers, YouTube video courtesy of Michael Canadas
Kestner King of Doll Makers – Johann Daniel Kestner (JDK) of Waltershausen, Thuringia, Germany (b. 1787- d. 1858) began making papier mache and wood dolls and toys as early as 1820. Kestner eventually went on to employ nearly three quarters of the inhabitants of the Waltershausen region which earned him the nickname “King Kestner”.
In 1858 J.D. Kestner passed away and his grandson Adolf eventually took over the running of the company, around 1860 Kestner produced wax over papier mache doll heads, by 1860 they acquired the Ohrdruf porcelain factory and began to produce the bisque dolls known by collectors today. Kestner was one of the few German doll makers to produce the entire doll – the head and body.
Kestner kid leather bodies may have a label of Celebrated “crown dolls”, Excellence, Excelsior, Marvel, Par Excellence or Perfection along with the Kestner crown and streamer label. Unique to Kestner doll heads are the plaster like pates, also most Kestner dolls do not have pierced ears. Kestner’s most common doll mold number 154 came as a full sized doll or very small kid body doll.
Kestner supplied most of the bisque heads used by Catterfelder Puppenfabrik (Carl Trautmann) doll molds 263, 264, Century Doll Company, also some bisque heads for Max Oscar Arnold mold 54, Roullet et Decamps walking dolls; Bébé Systême and L’Intrépide Bébé and heads for Fischer, Naumann & Company. Rheinische Gummi und Celluloid-Fabrik supplied Kestner with celluloid heads (doll mold 201) and other doll parts. Kestner made all bisque Rose O’Neill Kewpie dolls, including the rare blind closed eyes Kewpies.
JDK Kestner Dolls Identified
** Kestner doll mold 171, only the 18″ tall size doll was used as the Daisy doll as a mail in premium magazine subscription, introduced in 1911 as Lettie Lane’s actual doll, from the paper doll series Lettie Lane that ran in the Ladies Home Journal magazine from 1908 to 1912. Heinrich Handwerck‘s Bébé Cosmopolite 18″ doll was also used.
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Kestner dolls were distributed by Borgfeldt, Butler Brothers, Century Doll Company, Horsman, Macy, Sears, Siegel Cooper, FAO Schwartz and probably others. Some named Kestner dolls are: Baby Jean doll (so called Hilda’s sister), Dainty Dorothy, Sally, Sammy (JDK + size number), Daisy doll mold 171 only the 18″ tall size, Hilda doll molds 237, 245, 1070, Max doll mold 186a, Moritz doll mold 186b, the all bisque Prize Baby doll mold 208 of which some labels say Brize Baby and Siegfried doll mold 272. Kestner doll molds 180, 195, 196, 199, 265 have real fur eyebrows patented in 1910.
JDK Kestner doll marks, doll mold numbers with images