Most you know that I collected dolls long before I met my first Sasha doll and that I especially love cloth dolls. Sweet Abby suggested that I share some photos of the Kathe Kruse dolls that live here on the Cow Creek farm. Abby, an early AI Sasha Studio doll is shown here with an all cloth Kathe Kruse (KK) doll known as the German Child. She is about 20 inches tall, is wonderfully hand painted and, like most KK dolls, she has a human hair wig. 🙂
A closer view of this dear child. 🙂
This girl is also a German Child and about 20 inches tall. She is also all cloth but not as old as the previous girl.
This pretty girl is a Hampelchen with painted hair. She is about 18 inches in height. 🙂
This beautiful girl is a Doll I H and she is about 18 inches tall. She is all cloth and her shoes and socks are appropriately replaced and not original. Her dress is original. 🙂
These two girls are sisters and very early dolls. They came with mommy-made matching outfits plus these outfits they wear in the photos. ❤
A closer view to see of the big sister. 🙂
A closer view of baby sister. 🙂
Both of these girls are ponytail girls. The taller girl is about 19 inches tall and the smaller one is 14 inches tall. Their heads are synthetic and they are handpainted with human hair wigs.
This lovely girl is very early and is all cloth and about 18 inches tall. She is Doll I H and I love her face painting. ❤
This is a rarer Kathe Kruse doll known as a Du Mein and she is about 14 inches tall. She is hand painted, has wide hips and is all cloth too. ❤
This happy trio consists of a 14 inch minty girl made in the 1950’s, a small 9 inch girl known as Daumlinchen, and a 12 inch girl known as Rumpumpel. The smaller girl is cloth bodied and inside her wire limbs are wrapped in foam rubber so she is still soft but bendable which is nice for posing. :). All of the wigs are made of human hair. 🙂
A nice grouping of 14 inch dolls all with hand painted faces, human hair wigs, and cloth bodies. 🙂
Very nice hand painting. 🙂
An older girl with a lovely plaited wig. 🙂
Bobbed haircut on this pretty girl. 🙂
I love this pretty girl with a most unusual hair color. Most Kathe Kruse doll wigs are blonde or brownish in color. This brunette is a dear one!
A view of her hair styling in the back. ❤
Here she is next to a lovely puddle eyed Sasha doll that I will be adopting out. You can see this girl is a bit smaller. 🙂
This is an eatly wide hipped Doll I that is about 17 inches tall. As you can see, she is tucked-in with other dolls in a display and I will show her better in another post along with other Kathe Kruse dolls that are not shown today. My Abby had a great idea I think to share the KK dolls with you on the blog which proves she not only has good looks but that she is a smart girl too. 😉
Finally, a partial group photo of the KK girls. I hope you enjoyed this atypical post and thank you for visiting with us today. Abby and I are sending you hugs and happy wishes for the week to come! 🙂 xxx
Sasha Shangri-La 
all beautiful , i was telling a friend today that i did go through a stage of looking at alot of kk dolls on german ebay but thought id better stop as i dont need anything else to collect , i do have a few but i mustnt have more ! 🙂 xxxxx
Hi Sarah and thank you for the lovely comment. Nearly all of these dolls have been with me for years and years now. I seldom buy a Kruse doll now unless it would fill a gap in my collection. I do think they are wonderful dolls to collect and I so enjoy seeing other KK collections.
I understand trying to hold the line on doll collecting so not to have too many dolls and to better focus on my favorite dolls but sadly, I am not the best at doing that though I do try. 🙂 xxx
Beautyful KK dolls, I did not know you have them. 😄
Thank you Brigitte. My earlier collection. 🙂 xxx
Ginger – this is a lovely post and I could easily be tempted, but you are really not helpful – I have a lot of saving to do!! 😉
Thank you Tricia, yes they are wonderful dolls to collect. But I am glad you are saving for fun Sasha times in 2016! 🙂 xxx
Heaven I’m in Heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
and I seem to find the happiness I seek….
And I am in heaven because I LOVE Kathe Kruse dolls
I always have , so seeing all these wonderful dolls spread out before me is incredible!
Abby and Ginger how beautiful you are to get these fabulous dolls out of their ‘homes’ to come and meet us.
You are so knowledgeable and this information is so interesting, as I know next to nothing about them apart from the fact i have loved them since I was a child.
I’ll be studying this post for days! and the next one too.
And I have to say that the group photo at the end is perfection! I love seeing dolls in their groups, I’ll be stealing that photo Ginger I hope you don’t mind! 🙂
Funnily enough I did a post of my few KK dolls to put on today but when I got my Sasha Christmas tote bags I saved it for tomorrow, so I’ll post it just after midnight. Now I have to go study and these photo’s and steal that group one…… Heaven I’m in heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly type……………………………. 🙂 xxx
Wow Dee, thank you so much! I can see in my mind Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing “cheek to cheek” as I read your lovely lyrics. Love it!
I am so happy you enjoyed this KK post. I have enjoyed seeing your KK dolls on FB and I will love seeing them on your blog which allows one to share so much more information and also allow us to revisit posts with ease. :).
Of course, please use the photos as you would like to do. I really squeezed them in and I am glad the photo turned out okay. I too have always loved KK dolls and I still do love them. The books have been very helpful to understand them better. I even have a book written in german and the photos are wonderful. Thanks again Dee! You have made my day! ❤ xxx
Ginger, thank you so much for the atypical post! I just love it and adore your KK collection. You have some absolute stunners and I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite, though your first girl with Abby (German Child) and I H in the blue dress are top of the list. Now this isn’t counting your wide hipped little girl right at the very end who has my heart from a photo you showed me a long time ago. I cannot wait to meet her and give her a little kiss and say ‘Hello sweet darling’! ❤
I am glad you enjoyed this KK post. I really enjoyed collecting them and they still give me a lot of joy when I spend time with them. The girls you mentioned are some of the earlier ones especially the Doll I wide hipped girl at the end. I look forward to your visit when you see her and all of the dolls when you come for the Sasha Festival. Isn’t it fun to have our trips to look forward to? Thank you for the lovely comments. ❤ xxx
We are going to have the best of times, I can’t wait to play dollies with you ❤ xxx
Yes, it will be such fun to have time to play dolls! 🙂 xxx
I’d meant to comment on this last night Ginger, but got called away for some game playing! A super wonderful and informative post of your amazing collection. It was a joy to look at and read. Your little one wearing the red pixie style hat has a face that reminds me very much of the Schoenhut toddlers. It is interesting to see the differences and similarities of various dolls and easy to see how we love them so.
Thank you.
Thank you Lorraine! I am glad you like seeing the KK dolls. There are a lot of similarities among the dolls made at that time with the hand painted eyes and even with their head molds. I love seeing other KK collections and think it is a good thing to share them. They are just wonderful dolls. 🙂 xxx
Gosh! Such drool worthy early Kathe Kruse doll Ginger! Each and every one is amazing. I keep coming back and taking another peak. There is just something so special about the earlier ones that has been lost with the more recent KK dolls. You are so lucky to have such a very fine collection of these wonderful early dolls.
Hi Cathy and thank you! I am so happy you enjoyed this post. The earlier Kruse dolls are wonderful and each one is a special work of art. There are a lot of similarities between Kathe Kruse and Sasha Morgenthaler as artists and as doll makers. I just love their dolls and I am very blessed to have their dolls in my collection. 🙂 xxx
Oh my word and this isn’t even all your Kathe Kruse collection – what a delectable group. I have a couple of Kathe Kruse books but none of the dolls and cannot contemplate collecting any yet. The little girl in the flowered dress with the pink hair band has beautiful eyes and face proportions, but they’re all lovely.
Hi DollMum! I know, a lot of dolls, right? My only defense is that it did take years to accumulate this delightful dolls and of course, I do so love dolls! ❤
Thank you for the lovely comment and books are a great place to start learning about dolls and their makers. As nice as it is to learn from others in our doll groups and learn from our hands-on experiences, books are the best doll support to have at our fingertips. 🙂 xxx
Your KKs are gorgeous! It was a pleasure to see photo #9 with the similar Sasha style dress.
Thank you Karen! I always think of you when I see a lovely smocked doll dress. The girl in photo #9 was made in the 1950’s and that is her original dress and shoes. I noticed a lot of pinafores too on various KK dolls especially the newer ones. I have seen photos of groupings of the very first KK dolls and there were a lot of them dressed in pinafores and others with knitted sweaters with matching hats and socks. It is not easy to find one of those dolls today with their original outfits and so I enjoy seeing them online or in books when I can. 🙂 xxx
Well worth the wait (computer is still denying me access for 98% of the time!) to see a part of your fantastic Kathe Kruse doll collection.. I live and learn as they say as being born during the WWII years I hardly saw or owned any dolls as such…..and then straight into boarding school at 11 to 18 where dolls/toys etc weren’t allowed, followed three years later into marriage (with definitely no money for these kind of items) I’m guessing that I ‘kind-of’ missed out.
I do love their innocent little faces and childlike bodies and clothing…just like I image the the children of the past to be and a delightfully far cry from the Cindy’s, Barbies, Bratz or the other modern dolls BJDs of today…(although I am attracted to Sharon’s Little Darling girls!)..
I’m rather thanking my lucky stars though that it is basically too late in MY life to start a new style of doll collection other than continuing with Sasha… so… My Brood you can feel safe in the knowledge that you won’t have to start to complete for my very limited doll finances.
Thanks, as always, for a delightful and most interesting post and for your good wishes for the week ahead….
Hi Kendal! I am so happy your computer finally gave you access! Thank you so much for your lovely comments about the KK dolls. I remember my Mom recounting to me how very much she wanted as a child to own a Shirley Temple doll and sadly, she did not get one until 50+ years later. Her heart’s desire just happened to fall in the early 1940’s and there was a World War on and dolls, especially the pricier ones, were out of the question in our family. My Granny told me about the ration stamps strictly alloted at that time and her feeling of being blessed to have a loaf of bread, a sack of flour and a dozen eggs in the icebox.
During my childhood, I was not exposed to Kathe Kruse dolls at all. The TV commercials during my early days showed Chatty Cathy dolls, Barbie dolls, Kissy dolls and Thumbelina dolls. As I look back, I think my doll wish lists were formed mostly by what I saw on TV or by what a friend played with such as Madame Alexander dolls. My Granny gave me a lovely Hallmark card one year that had Kruse dolls on it and it was lovely and I don’t think I knew at the time what they were other than pretty dolls but perhaps a seed was sown. 🙂
So I think I, like you, I missed out on these dolls for most of my life until I was an adult collector. I discovered the cloth dolls, to include Kathe Kruse dolls, before the Sasha dolls though and that is why I have managed to collect a good number of them. I am happy that your Sasha brood, as extraordinary as they are, remain very safe in your home and it is good they have no worries of competing dolls. I have been thinning out my doll collection little by little over time and most of the Sasha dolls, the Kruse dolls, and the special cloth dolls remain firmly planted here on Cow Creek farm! ❤ xxx