Captivating Bisque Character Doll and Mechanical Cow in Traditional Alpine Costume

6 Watching

Live Auction

22" (56 cm.) Bisque socket head, blue glass sleep eyes, painted curly lashes and brows, accented nostrils and eye corners, open mouth, stuck-out tongue, two porcelain teeth, brunette mohair bobbed wig, composition and wooden toddler body with very chubby torso and limbs. Condition: generally excellent, repair on one leg of cow. Marks: SQ (intertwined) 223 Germany. Comments: Schuetzmeister and Quendt, circa 1915. Value Points: the doll tends a 25" paper mache cow with brushed flannel coat having painted brown spots, brown glass eyes, carved nose, carved hooves, with tail and ears, and having "nodding" arrangement of head that is activated by key-wind mechanism at side of torso. The boy wears his elaborate original woolen folklore costume of Austrian Alpines of rich purple wool, with elaborate accessories including superb watch fob, and with a silk-ribbon trimmed walking stick matching the ribbon streamers worn by the cow; the cow is also decorated with a fanciful wire-framed coronet wreath and bell. Ex-collection Spielzeugmuseum Davos. History: The Alpine regions of Switzerland, Germany and Austria traditionally celebrated Spring with the annual "ascent to the mountains"; herds of cows and their shepherds single-filed the narrow mountain passes to reach the freshest grasses at the mountain peaks, where they feasted until August. At that time, they returned, single-file again, down the narrow pass to the villages below. The return to the villages ("descent from the mountains", known as "Almabtrieb in Austria and "Alpabfahrten" in Switzerland) was celebrated by merry festivals, the shepherds dressed in colorful traditional folklore costumes, and the greatest milk-producing cow bedecked with flowers and a crown. Historical accounts have poetically described the event as "cow bells across the meadows".