Catch the Zwergnase Spirit!

Nicole Marschollek-Menzner's expressive children brim with a full range of emotions.

BY MYRNA L. RUBENSTEIN

Heloise, a 19½-inch bundle of en­ergy, greets the day with a grin. All of the dolls featured in this article are available in limited editions of 250 worldwide

Source: August 2001 • Doll Reader , Pages 32-35

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The mountains of Thuringia echo with the I names of famed doll companies ... Kestner, Armand Marseille, Kammer & Reinhardt. Add another name to the list-Zwergnase. Zwergnase is a company based in a region deeply steeped in doll history, but the vinyl dolls that the company produces bear very lit­tle resemblance to their 19th-century ances­tors. The faces of Zwergnase dolls brim with vigor and emotion. They wear clothing that re­flects today's casual lifestyle. They are dolls with attitude.

Busy young­sters Milly and Amelie take time out from their girl talk. Each of the dolls measures 15¼ inches

The fertile mind of doll artist Nicole Marschollek-Menzner is the engine that drives Zwergnase. The dolls are a reflection of her artistic vision, and it is one that combines a love for children with an eye finely tuned to reality. "The character expressions of the Zwergnase dolls make them stand out in a crowd," says Nicole. "I create sculpts that reflect real children, not just the pretty faces of children, but the emotional ones."

Indeed, the faces of the dolls in Nicole's 2001 collection reflect a full range of emotions. Benedetta, Jojanne and Heloise are laughing out loud. Ann-Lene and Milly have broad smiles. Albertine, Bloeme, Amelie and Bruun are thinking serious thoughts. And Beau seems to be having a difficult moment.

With her bolero sweater, jumper and full-length dress, Ann-Lene is dressed in a fashionable European layered look that will take her from school to play. Nicole also gives the 25½-inch charmer a playful hairstyle

While Zwerganse dolls reflect a spectrum of emotions, Nicole explains that she concentrated on the theme of Joy and Laughter for 2001. "I think this col­lection represents joy and laughter better than any in the past," she says. "The chal­lenge [in creating the sculpts] is to create the expression you envision in your mind," says Nicole. "I have found that the most chal­lenging yet has been to produce the ex­pression of laughter as seen in many of the 2001 dolls. When a child laughs, not only does the mouth change, but also the eyes and other areas of the face."

Nicole says that children from everyday life inspire her creations. "I am able to create my facial sculpts by viewing children in everyday life. A special feature or expression that I see will stay in my mind. I am able to use these visions and blend them into a new facial expression as I sculpt."

The artist creates her initial sculpts in clay. "Once I have created the sculpt I am searching for, the mold is then cre­ated in wax and from wax to silicone. The silicone is then used to create the industrial form for the vinyl production.

"I choose only the best materials to create my final pieces," Nicole ex­plains. "Zwergnase owns the vinyl fac­tory and produces the vinyl for all of my dolls. I add to the realistic looks with wigs made of mohair or human hair. The glass eyes are made of mouth­blown glass, and this really makes the dolls look realistic. Incidentally, the same producer of my dolls' eyes also creates replacement eyes for people."

Bruun's flowing locks complement her multi-layered costume of coat, tunic, skirt and sweater. She measures 25½ inches

Zwergnase dolls are also appreci­ated for their interesting clothing, and Nicole oversees those, as well. "I de­sign all of my doll clothing," she says. "I design the costume for a doll once the facial sculpt is completed. I think that the clothing should be designed for each sculpt individually. This brings the creation together for me. I attend fabric trade shows and choose only the finest of materials, including natural silks and fine cottons. I choose fabrics and colors that will comple­ment my style of doll making."

Nicole says that she gains artistic fulfillment as she oversees the evolution of her creations from concept to reality. "As an artist, it is important to me to be involved in each step of the production.

The reward is to see the last details per­formed and watching your creation come to life just as you envision it."

As a youngster in Rauenstein, Ger­many, Nicole always envisioned becom­ing an artist. "The area is famous for toy making, and I grew up surrounded by the art of toy and doll making," relates Nicole. "This inspired me to pursue not necessarily a career, but a life as an artist. I knew I wanted to create. I always have been interested in creating artistic expres­sion. As a teenager, I was known to cre­ate my own jewelry. My mother still comments on the outrageous earrings I would design and wear. These were elab­orate expressions of myself. We still get a laugh out of them when we discuss them." Nicole received encouragement from her family and teachers to fulfill her artistic dreams. She studied art in school and eventually received a bachelor's de­gree in toy making and mechanical design from the College of Design and Mechan­ical Engineering in Sonneberg, Germany.

Albertine dresses for a day of shopping in a sophisticated skirt and blouse made of natural fibers. She is 25½ inches tall

Nicole explains that a major event in world history, the fall of the Iron Cur­tain, gave her the freedom to ful­fill her ambitions.

"I was 20 years old and had lived in East Ger­many my entire life," she relates. "This change gave me the oppor­tunity to do what I do today. I was able to pursue my dream of creating dolls and owning a busi­ness. I can work for myself with the freedom I need to express my artistic views and make decisions for myself regarding the market­ing of my creations."

Given the freedom to create the dolls she wanted to create, Nicole still had much to learn. She recalls that among the challenges she faced when learning to create dolls was learning the anatomy of the human body. "This is so im­portant as I strive to create dolls that are in proportion to the actual body of a child. The hands, fin­gers, feet, toes, etc., must all be in proportion. This is necessary to create a doll with realistic features. The proportion is also necessary in the creation of a facial sculpt. All of the facial features must be in tune to create the final sculpt."

After receiving her degree Nicole went to work for a doll manufacturer in her region. But she knew that she wanted to have her own doll company. Nicole's dream of creating and marketing her own dolls came true when she and her husband, Bernd started Zwergnase in 1994. Bernd serves as Zwergnase's General Director.

Benedetta and Heloise are ready to share a secret. The dolls measure 19½-inches each. All Zwergnase dolls in the 2001 collection wear shoes of real leather

Since then, Nicole's vivacious child dolls have captured the attention of doll collectors worldwide. Zwergnase dolls are available in retail doll shops in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Austria and Sin­gapore. "By making my dolls available in smaller retail stores, I am able to feel confident that the dealers carry a certain expertise where my dolls [and bears, which I also design and create], are concerned. This is so impor­tant for the collector, who may have many questions about my creations and how they are produced." Nicole and Bernd live in a village outside of Schalkau, Germany, and the Zwergnase factory is about five minutes from her house. The mother of two youngsters, Greta, age 10, and Mees, age 2, Nicole leads a demanding life. "I do not have a typical workday schedule. I also am involved in the pro­duction of the dolls and am needed during certain set hours while the pro­duction assistants are in the factory. The entire production facility is housed in our one factory. From the vinyl production to the sewing of fabrics, the dolls are completely created under one roof.

Beau and Bloeme are two good friends who watch out for one an­other as they make their way to an important destination. They each are 15:¼ inches tall

"I do, however, do a great deal of work at home. I will sometimes work on my sculpts at home in the evenings after my children have gone to sleep. Sometimes when I am very focused on a design, I cannot stop working until I fin­ish the sculpt. There are also times when I must wait until some aspect of industrial production is completed. As I sculpt, I envision the final product and work as hard as I can to complete the design to my utmost satisfaction. I also must have enough time to do this. If my children need me, or other situa­tions are presented, I must hold off on the production until I can devote my­self completely to the design."

With each new collection, Nicole continually strives to extend the range of her abilities. "I try to get better with each doll I make," she says. "I do not look back on my previous work as I am pleased with each new collection. I always try to improve each one and challenge myself each year to create new and exciting dolls for collectors. I have found that I am able to test my limitations as an artist a little more with each collection." It is exciting to watch such a talented artist grow.

Restoring Collectable Composition Dolls

Are YOU afraid to buy a lovely composition doll for your collection because you feel those cracks are irreparable? Then, this article is for you!

BY VIRGINIA NATRASEVSCHI

Halco Fluffee 29” Composition Doll

Source: September/October 1987 • National Doll World , Pages 38-39, 64

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All doll collectors know stories of a "great find" - a rare doll in mint condition and original clothes show­ing up at a garage sale for pennies. Unfortunately, such finds are almost unheard of, and those dolls that are within the range of our budgets usu­ally show the effects of time and handling. Dolls were and are, after all, children's toys.

However, many of the less than mint dolls are affordable, and can be worth collecting if their defects are carefully screened. I found this little Alexander McGuffy Ana at a local doll shop and was charmed by her sweet face, in spite of moderate craz­ing and deteriorated wig. Her price was a fraction of that of the same doll in mint condition, but considering what mint McGuffy's bring, still enough to prohibit impulse buying. I wanted to be sure I would be proud of her on my shelf, and that if I ever wanted to sell her, she would at least hold the value I gave for her. Her damage needed to be carefully assessed.

McGuffy Ana Before

First, she obviously needed restringing, and her original outfit was missing. Restringing is easily corrected, and since I sew and design patterns for doll clothes, the outfit posed no problems. Second, I checked her surface condition. She had moderate crazing (more appar- ent to the naked eye than to the camera) but not too deep to be successfully "doctored," I thought. There were some plusses here, also. Her face was less crazed than the rest of her body -to be expected since doll manufacturers gave more layers of paint to the face than to the body, but still something that needed to be checked. Her cheeks still had good color. A little paint was gone from her lips, and her eyebrows had worn off, but these also are not difficult to correct. She had tin eyes, so there was no danger of her eyes becoming crazed at a later time. Last, I turned to her wig. It is mohair, which is more difficult to restore than human hair, and it was mussed and somewhat sparce in places. However, I felt that it was intact enough to restore, with care.

McGuffy Ana passed the test. I bought her and brought her home and began her restoration.

Restringing:

Restringing is one of the simplest doll repairs to make, and informa- tion on restringing is available in all doll repair manuals. However, I will give here a simple method which is appropriate to this doll and can be done without even a stringing hook. For this size doll, you will need about 18" of 1/8" doll elastic and any s­hooks which need to be replaced. The amount of elastic is more than you will actually use, but is easier to work with than a shorter length.

Cut the old elastic and remove it. Lay the doll's body and all her limbs, positioned near their respective body openings, on a table or other flat work surface. With your fingers, push the elastic through each socket, except the neck, and hook on the arms and legs. Push both ends of the elastic up through the neck, pulling the arms and legs into position in their sockets. Hook the doll's head onto one end of the elastic. Lay a pen­cil across the neck opening, and tie the ends of the elastic across the pen­cil, pulling the elastic as tight as you can get it. Tie elastic in a square knot. Remove pencil, tuck excess elastic into doll, position head on neck, and your doll is strung! You can retrieve the long ends of the elastic now and clip them if you wish, but leave them until you have removed the pencil and tested the stringing, in case you have to adjust the knot.

I want to mention a few points about this method of stringing. It is very effective on moderately small dolls. Larger dolls use thicker elastic that requires clamps, so the simple tying is not possible, and a stringing hook is required. Second, the only dif­ficult point in this method is keeping all the limbs attached until the elas­tic is pulled tight enough to provide tension. It is important that the elas­tic is stretched to its maximum ex­tension when you tie. You do not need to worry about getting it too tight, as the length of the hook from the head will reduce the tension as soon as the pencil is removed and the head is in place.

Crazing Minimizer:

Think of this procedure as a face and/or body lift for compo dolls. It is not a magic cure-all, but it will greatly improve and enhance your doll's appearance without disturbing the original finish. It is most effective on dolls with light to moderate craz­ing.

You will need the following materi­als: White hobby gloss enamel 1 bottle Burnt Sienna artist's oil pigment, small tube

Plaster of Paris Elmer's glue Old china plate Palette or old round-tipped table knife

Toothpicks Soft rag (old t-shirts are great)

On your plate, pour out a little of the hobby enamel - a quarter tea­spoon is plenty. A little distance away, on the same plate, squeeze out an even smaller amount of the Burnt Sienna pigment. With your palette or knife, heap as much plaster as will stay on the tip and put it also on the plate, again keeping it separate from the other ingredients.

The advantage to keeping things separate is that it is much easier to add tiny amounts to get everything just right, than to adjust larger amounts if you dump everything to­ gether at the start. I like to use the enamel as my mixing point, adding everything to that, and then pouring more enamel from the bottle if it is needed.

With a toothpick, add a very small amount of the pigment you have al­ready squeezed out, and stir it into the enamel. Keep adding pigment un­til you have a color ·a shade lighter than that of the doll you are restor­ing. Just as with human makeup, lighter tones make age lines less no­ ticeable.

With your knife, add plaster to the paint until the recipe is about the con­sistency of toothpaste, only a little thinner. Add a drop or two of water to thin, if necessary. Now, add a couple of drops of glue, and mix that in also. The mixture should still have a toothpaste-like consistency. If you get a ball that behaves like silly putty, you have too much glue, and need to backtrack and add more paint and plaster.

McGuffy Ana After

Taking your soft cloth, begin to rub the formula over the doll, one small area at a time. Take care to rub it well into the crazing lines, but rub it over the smooth surfaces as well. It will clean and polish, leaving a fresh sparkle as you rub it off. If you find that it doesn't clean off well, leaving a paint film, then, strange as it may sound, you need to add a drop or two more of the glue. If the lines are changing from black to red, you have added too much pigment, and need to add more of the white enamel. I have also used this formula on com po dolls that were not crazed, as a cleaner and freshener, and it is very effec­tive.

Face Touch-Up:

For touchin􀁞 up lip color and drawing new eyebrows, I use artist's col­ored pencils. When moistened, these have a paint-like consistency that is easy to apply and durable, but is also water removeable. Simply moisten end of lead and fill in missing lip color, and sketch in eyebrows, using short, light strokes.

Fortunately, this particular doll's cheek color is good, but if your doll's cheeks have faded a bit, that too can be helped. You will need a small tube of artist's oil pigment in "carmine" and a soft rag. Squeeze out a tiny amount of the pigment onto the cloth and buff it onto the doll's cheeks. Re­peat as needed. As I mentioned ear­lier, my Ana's eyes are tin, but many compo dolls had synthetic eyes that were subject to crazing. If this is the case for your doll, this can be reme­died with a drop or two of sewing ma­chine oil. If they are badly crazed, it may take several applications.

Wig:

To restore doll wigs you will need a spray bottle of Johnson and Johnson's "No More Tangles" and a wide-toothed comb. For mohair wigs, it is very important to remem­ber that they cannot be trulv combed. only slightly "smoothed." Combing will separate the tiny fibers that con­stitute each "hair" and leave you with a comb full of hair and a bare wig. Remove any old ties and carefully unbraid the hair. Spray the doll's wig all over lightly with No More Tan­gles. Using your comb, very gently smooth only the surface of the wig. Rebraid, fasten braids, and tie with ribbons. Smooth bangs. If your doll has any long wisps of hair, these may be trimmed, but use caution in cut­ting. As I'm sure you remember from childhood, doll's hair doesn't grow back! If the wig has come unat­tached from the head around the hairline, use a few drops of glue and reattach.

McGuffy Ana is now ready for the dressmaker! She has been cleaned, made up and been to the stylist. As you can see in the "after" photos, her hidden charm is now quite obvious. She is fresh and clean, and her craz­ing has all but disappeared. She can stand up straight and has a sparkle in her face. With a new outfit she will be a delightful addition to any collec­tion.

The Dolls Of Jules Steiner. A Comparative Study

My love affair with the French Steiner dolls began in 1974, for that was the year I met "Mamselle." Stand­ing as she was on the counter of my fa­vorite doll shop, all 28" (71.1 cm) of her in red velvet, she was certainly stunning, but her appeal, to me, went further: it was the special something which develops between a collector and a doll that kept drawing me back to her over the other hundred dolls on display.

BY JAN FOULKE. PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOW FOULKE

Jan Foulke Collection "Bourgoin" Steiner Doll

Source: April/May 1979 • DOLL READER , Pages 3-6

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As I circled the shop, al­ways coming back to sigh over her, I told myself that this feeling was ridi­culous. I didn't collect bisque dolls. Not only that, I couldn't buy one with such an enormous price tag! Subse­quently, I left the shop with a box of assorted smaller dolls, "Mamselle" still standing on the counter.

Sometimes the old adage "out of sight, out of mind" absolutely refuses to work-and visions of that doll spun round my head. Finally after several days I could stand the torment no longer: I must own that doll. My hus­band was tired of hearing about her: "Go ahead and buy her," he said. I called the shop owner in a state of euphoria, only to come crashing down to reality when she told me the doll had already been sold! I was dev­astated, but at least the torment was over.

However, that is not the end of my story about "Mamselle" because four months later on Christmas morn­ing, there was "Mamselle" standing next to my tree. I hugged and hugged her, laughing and crying both at the same time that such a marvelous trea­sure was really mine. My husband was the one who had bought the doll, and I never suspected.

Societe Steiner was founded by Jules Nicholas Steiner in 1855 in Paris, France. After 1891, he was no longer in charge and the direction of the com­pany passed to a succession of other heads until 1908. Apparently Societe Steiner did not join the S.F.B.J. con­glomerate of doll makers formed in 1888 which included Jumeau, Bru and others.

Judging from the number of pa­tents registered to them, the Steiner firm apparently worked hard to im­prove their dolls and to try new inno­vations. They had patents for eye movement, walking, talking and other mechanisms for dolls as well as for im­proved processes for making heads and limbs. Several times the firm won med­als for their dolls at the Paris Exhibi­tion, the most exciting in 1889 when they were awarded the gold medal (Medaille D'or).

Steiner dolls usually have beauti­ful smooth bisque, almost creamy, with delicately tinted cheeks. Their eyes are alert, but not oversized like those of the Jumeaus; their lips are full, but tinting is pale so they do not show up as well in photographs as those of other French dolls. Dolls from the early 1880s often have round faces; those of the 1890s are more rec­tangular. Societe Steiner created a wide range of dolls-too many styles and types for one small article, so we are choosing a sampling to include here and will discuss their characteris­tics.

Jan Foulke Collection "Bourgoin" Steiner. Marks on head (incised)

Marks on body: Partial black stamped mark with a decipherable J. This type of Steiner is usually dated about 1880. Her wide forehead and full cheeks give her face a round appearance. Her chin is not well de­fined, but does have a faint dimple. Her eyebrows are a delicate blonde with minute brush strokes. Her blown glass eyes each have a vivid blue iris with a black rim and many tiny dark spokes in them. Often this type of doll has wire eyes (explained later in detail), but although her head is cut for the lever, she never had moving eyes and was apparently a less expensive model. Painted lashes are a series of lightly-made black strokes and eye sockets are outlined in black. Her pierced ears are rather plain and sim· ply modeled. Her mouth is typically Steiner with light tinting; two pro­nounced peaks on the upper lip and a turned up corner. The original pate is of dark brown cardboard. Her curly kidskin wig is a replacement of the proper style as her original hair had been eaten off its skin wig cap.

Jan Foulke Collection "Bourgoin" Steiner Doll

Her original body is in excellent condition. At the knee and elbow joints, the typical purple undercoating which Steiner used can be seen. Fin· gertips and toes still retain traces of the red-lined nails. As is typical of French doll bodies in general, there is little anatomical detail: upper limbs are straight, as are the knee joints; toes are only faintly modeled. There are no separate ball joints; wrists are straight and fingers are stubby; stomach is flat; derriere protrudes only slightly, gently rounded. She is 14" (35.6cm) tall.

Jan Foulke Collection. Baby Steiner Doll

Marks on head (incised):

Red stamp located at sides of crown opening at left: J. STEINER 8.S.G.D.G.

Right: illegible, but could be a repetition of the left side. Marks on body: None.

This Steiner baby is a scant 7" (17.8cm) long with size 4/0 head. Her face is of the type associated with the "Bourgoin" mark. She has the same pate, slight nose, upper lip, ear and eye shape as the doll shown in Illustrations 1-3. Her brows are light and feathered also, but her gray lashes are longer and heavier in proportion to her size, and the eye sockets are not black-lined. Her eyelids have a rose tint. She has the 1880s patented wire-eye mecha· nism. The lever protruding behind her ear opens and closes her dark blue gray eyes. Notice how the head is cut to ac· commodate the lever. She probably had a lamb's wool curly wig which has been lost.

Her papier-mache body, which shows some detail in molding of arms and legs, appears to be a forerunner of the bent-limb babies so popular after 1909, and certainly indicates her to be a rare Steiner type. Not shown in the illustrations is what appears to be her original clothes-a child's guimpe and dress of the late 1880s.

Crandall Collection. Mechanical doll by Steiner

Hardly the prettiest of Steiners in her stripped down condition, yet very interesting is this mechanical doll. In her torso is a mechanism which moves her legs, arms and head while she cries "Mama." This is operated by the key which protrudes from her side. Her head of a pale, almost parian finish with rosy cheeks is round with a wide short neck, completely closed dome and open mouth with two rows of tiny teeth. Her small eyes are pale blue, a paperweight type with blue lining at the eye sockets. Her eyebrows are long and tiny, arching slightly. Her pierced ears have little detail.

Her torso is cloth-covered card­board; arms and lower legs are compo­sition. There is no mark on the heads of these dolls, but the mechanism car­ries the Steiner mark. This doll is 16" (40.7cm) tall, but this type was also available in other sizes. She is hard to date precisely and could possibly be as early as the 1870s as she has characteristics associated with the early Stein­ers. Also some of these types of bodies have been found with wax-over-papier-­mache heads.

Mike White Collection. Steiner doll

Marks on head (incised): S TE C4.

Red stamp at each side of crown opening:

J. STEINER B.S.G.D.G.

Eyes (incised on back of eyeball):

STEINER

4

S.G.D.G

Marks on body: None

This 22-1/2" (57.1cm) Steiner has a longer, lower face than that of the "Bourgoin" or the baby, as well as a higher forehead. She has the interest­ing wire mechanism to operate her blue eyes which do not have the depth of permanent paperweight eyes be­cause they are set into what appears to be a bisque eyeball which is not as fra­gile as the glass eyeball of the German weighted eyes. Also the eyes must be flatter to allow room for opening and closing which is not possible with bulging eyes. She has her original pur­ple cardboard pate, typical of many Steiner dolls. Also there is a little more detail in her ears, which are also pierced. Her eyebrows are soft. Her mouth is typical with two peaks on upper lip and turned up corners. Her body is unmarked but has Steiner characteristics including the short, fat fingers. She is later than the "Bourgoin" since she has jointed wrists, probably dating from the late 1880s. Her long, blonde, human hair wig appears to be original.

Jan Foulke Collection

Marks on head (incised):

A-19

PARIS

Red stamp: "LE PARISIEN"

Marks on body (purple stamp on hip).

BÉBÉ "LE PARISIEN"

MEDAILLE D'OR

PARIS

Finally, here is "Mamselle," easier· than the others to date because her trademark, "Le Parisien" was register­ed in 1892. She is typical of the Steiners with the rectangular face, with just a hint of a chin. Her eyes are dark blue paperweight with good depth as she does not have the wire type. Her eyebrows are darker brown and more pronounced than those on earlier Steiners; eye sockets are wider, not as almond-shaped as earlier ones. Her neck is longer. Her mouth has the same soft color and shape. Her nose is longer with a more defined shape. One of the most interesting changes is in the intricate modeling of her ears which contain a large, deep canal as well as more intricate folds. Another unusual aspect is her original cork pate as most Steiners have cardboard ones.

Her body is similar to that of the "Bourgoin" and a comparison shows three major differences: fingers are longer and thinner; wrists are jointed; and the big toe is separated. She is wearing her original clothes, a deep red velvet dress in Kate Green­away style. Her shoes are marked Steiner. Her hair and hat are replace­ments.

Marks on body: BÉBÉ "LE PARISIEN" MEDAILLE D'OR PARIS

EXPLANATION OF SOME TERMS USED IN STEINER MARKS

STE - probably society or company

BTE - patent registered

S.g.D.g - without government guarantee of the government

J. Bourgoin - unknown but perhaps an as­sociate as here it is preceded by a J. Else­where it isn't.

J. Steiner - head of Société Steiner, 1855-1891