German Cloth Character by Kathe Kruse with Intriguing Provenance

13 Watching

Live Auction

17" (43 cm.) All-cloth doll with three back head seams, firmly-pressed and oil-painted hair and facial features, brown hair with modeling details at forehead, blushed ears and cheeks, small blue painted eyes, black and brown upper eyeliner, lightly-tinted brows, rounded small nose, small closed mouth, stitch-jointed arms and separately-stitched thumbs, disc-jointed legs. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: Kathe Kruse 8195 ( feet). Comments: Kathe Kruse, the first model doll, circa 1915. Value Points: very fine state of preservation, fine gleaming original finish of complexion and hair, wearing plush mohair coat with yarn woven edging, cuffs and collar, matching cap, socks and shoes. Included with the doll are additional hand sewn costumes, and two sculpted 9" portrait dolls of the late 19th century famed contralto Mme Shumann-Heink, who was the original owner of this Kruse doll. Included with the doll is a note written in 1958 indicating this original ownership (although mistakenly stating that the opera singer made the doll herself), and then its later ownerships by Mrs. David Babcock, Sr. and Jr.