07/06/2026
👶 KEWPIE DOLLS 👶
A brief history lesson from REDS 📚🤓
The kewpie doll has been a pop-culture icon for decades! We all know them from things like the mayo brand, the show/carnival dolls in tutus on sticks, the cute cartoons, the tattoo craze sweeping the world, etc. But not many people know where it started! I know I didn’t, so I decided to do some research to find out 💻
The whimsical cute characters were brought to life by Rose O’Neill, an American cartoonist and illustrator. The kewpie dolls were first shown in the 1909 Christmas issue of “Ladies Home Journal”, in which they were mischievous but good-hearted little “elf-babies” that loved doing good deeds to cheer up humans. They continued to appear in comic strips and advertisements, which were always an instant hit among the readers! 🤩
Rose named her creations after Cupid, the Roman God of love. She is quoted as saying her Kewpies are "a sort of little round fairy whose one idea is to teach people to be merry and kind at the same time." How cute!! 💘
At first the dolls were designed to be paper dolls, known as “Kewpie Kutouts”, that could be played with and used to create little stories by their reader base, but it didn’t take long for demand to surge and soon they made their debut into the 3D world 🌏
O’Neill teamed up with Joseph Kallus to create the very first molds for the porcelain kewpie dolls. Production began in 1912 in Waltershausen, Germany. This absolutely skyrocketed their popularity onto the global stage, so much so that Rose O’Neill became the very first female illustrator to become a millionaire through her work. She used the platform and fortune her fame gave her to fund and support the women’s suffrage movement. Talk about a feminist icon 💅
By the 1920s production expanded and the “Kuddle Kewpies” were created. They had cloth bodies and were adored for their cutesy cuddliness and ease for play for young children 🧸
From 1920s and into the 1950s is when we saw the craze of the Kewpie Doll show/carnival prize go worldwide. This is when they became the iconic celluloid dolls mounted on cane sticks dressed in colourful and ornate outfits. Their fun look swept the world, and everyone wanted one! The look of the carnival Kewpie Doll was a bit different than the original. It was based on the “Marcella Kewpie”, styled on a mix of the 1920s flapper aesthetic and Japanese cartoon/dolls that were being made at the time. Now 100 years later, you will still find them being sold at carnivals and amusement parks all over the world! 🎪
From the 1960s they began making both the Marcella and the original styled dolls using softer and more durable materials, mainly vinyl and rubber. This allowed them to reach more people in more ways; they were much more durable, desirable to wider audiences and would stand the test of time. They are still being made to this day! 👶
In our modern world, they have absolutely EXPLODED into our pop-culture world in so many ways. From becoming the face of a world-favourite mayo brand, being on countless tattoo flash sheets, clothing, accessories, home decor, etc etc. Whatever item you can think of, it probably has a kewpie doll on it somewhere around the world. 🌝
We have a limited number of Kewpie Dolls available at the moment! Please see slides 5-8 for pictures of them. Most of them are the classic carnival Kewpies. Slide 8 shows a super rare antique bisque Kewpie soldier, made sometime between 1912-1920. If you’d like to take one home with you then feel free to shoot us a message, check out our website or pop in-store 🛒
It’s really amazing all the history and stories that are associated with Kewpie Dolls, this post is just a snapshot. For more information scroll to the end of the post for some of the sources ℹ️
