Composition Kewpie
Is there a difference between Composition Kewpie and Bisque
The Composition Kewpie and the popularity of Kewpie dolls began in the early 1900’s when artist, Rose O’Neill, published her illustrations of the first Kewpie doll picture in an issue of Ladies’ Home Journal in 1909. It was three years later in Ohrdurf, Germany where the dolls were first made out of bisque. Bisque is a material that first gained popularity in the 1860’s among French and German toy-makers. Thus, when the Borgfeldt Company finalized negotiations with Rose O’Neill to produce the doll, Borgfeldt’s affiliates in Germany also produced the earliest Kewpie bisque dolls.
During the 1920’s after Germany was involved in World War I, the United States stopped importing dolls from Germany because too little was being produced to satisfy the demand. The Americans then began producing the Kewpies themselves, with Joseph Kallus’s Cameo Doll Company as one of the front-runners.
From here on a major shift has occurred in terms of the material used to make the Kewpie dolls. Instead of bisque, the Americans turned to other materials such as vinyl and composition. This is because bisque as a material is quite expensive and is also difficult to handle because it is fragile. Another reason is the then emergence of composition as a material to make dolls from. These reasons gave birth to the composition Kewpie dolls that have become the most popular products sold by the Cameo Company.
Composition Kewpie is made from a mixture of wood pulp and glue, which was poured in a mold and allowed to harden. To give the skin-like tone that bisque has on the dolls, composition dolls were painted with a thick layer of flesh-colored paint. After this the dolls facial features were painted on such as eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, and the blush on the cheeks. On top of all the paint, the dolls were sealed off with a varnish to protect the paint and composition itself.
This then made the Kewpie composition doll more durable than the bisque Kewpie. The composition Kewpie became more popular among children in the 1920’s after this change. The composition constructed dolls are able to withstand the constant wear and tear that comes with playing. After so much use the doll can show signs of cracking paint or a break in the composition, which you may find in an antique Kewpie today. The vintage Kewpie doll is also prone to damage if subjected to any extreme temperatures and humidity. If you own or are looking to collect these dolls, you should take care not to expose them to any of these conditions.
With these considerations, it isn’t any wonder that with the development of hard plastic in the 1940’s, doll manufacturers began to phase out composition dolls. Hard plastic was found to be more durable than composition and manufacturers all turned to it for the production of their dolls.
