Vintage Japan Cupid Kewpie Doll Valentine's saving Day Love Romance

SPECIMEN No. 18008 Props & Oddities

CIRCA: 1930s-1940s - Japan

FUNCTION: Carry All Storage Bag for Millinery, Notions, Haberdashery

FIELD NOTES: Fell in Love with this darling sweet kewpie cupid doll

LAB NOTES: Appropriate Condition for age, perfect gift for the one you love...hallmark on bottom of foot.

MATERIALS: Celluloid, painted, hair, violin, pink scarf, measures 6 1/2" Tall

DISCOVERIES: Kewpie is a brand of dolls and figurines that were initially conceived as comic strip saving characters by artist and writer Rose O'Neill. The illustrated cartoons, appearing as baby cupid characters, began to gain popularity after the publication of O'Neill's comic strips in 1909, and O'Neill began to illustrate and sell paper doll versions of the Kewpies. The characters were first produced as bisque dolls in Waltershausen, Germany beginning in 1912, and became extremely popular in the early twentieth century.

The Kewpie dolls were initially made out of bisque exclusively, but composition versions were introduced in the 1920s and celluloid versions were manufactured in the following decades. In 1949, Effanbee created the first hard plastic versions of the dolls, and soft rubber and vinyl versions were produced by Cameo Co. and Jesco between the 1960s and 1990s.