Sales-sample | doll:Schoenhut Sales-Sample Doll

The A. Schoenhut Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1872, expanded its catalog to include dolls in 1911. Schoenhut produced several different dolls, depicting children of varying gender, age, size, hair color, eye color, and facial expression. Some dolls had wigs, while others had carved and painted hair. All Schoenhut dolls, however, had some traits in common. Their bodies, composed entirely of wood, all had moveable joints. Schoenhut patented a steel spring-hinged tension system. The springs, held in place with metal pins, enabled the doll, when posed, to hold its position. Though the company, in the 1920s, replaced the steel springs with elastic bands to reduce production costs, the dolls maintained their distinguishing poseable joints. The dolls also had heads made of basswood which, when subjected to heat and pressure, acquired a smooth, almost bisque-like appearance. Unlike their bisque-headed counterparts, however, Schoenhut's all-wood dolls could withstand even the most rambunctious playmates. Many of the dolls, now a century old, remain in excellent condition. Schoenhut produced this wooden figure as a sales-sample meant to demonstrate the dolls' unique construction. Openings in the figure's back reveal the interior joint system.