The Works of Rose O'Neill
Her Kewpies
“Do good deeds in a funny way. The world needs to laugh
or at
least smile more than it does”
-Rose O’Neill
This quote represents the philosophy Rose O’Neill expressed through her Kewpies.
The idea for them had been fermenting in the creative mind of Rose
since childhood. The likeness of the Kewpie came from several
sources. In an interview in Hobbies Magazine in June of 1946 Rose
recalled, “The idea grew from a baby brother when I was a little
girl. I made drawings of him while I played with him. All his little
looks and gestures came out later in the Kewpie.”
Rose elaborated on the story of how the Kewpies came into being.
While Rose was on an extended stay at Bonniebrook in 1909, the
Kewpie was born. Rose recounted, “In illustrating love stories I had
a way of making decorative head and tail pieces with Cupids. Edward
Bok of the Ladies’ Home Journal cut out a number of these and sent
them to me. He asked me if I could make a series of the little
creatures and said that he would find someone to make accompanying
verses. I replied that I would make the verses up myself and wrote
him an illustrated letter in which I created the character of the
Kewpie. I invented the name for little Cupid, spelling it with a K
because it seemed funnier. I thought about the Kewpies so much that
I had a dream about them where they were all doing acrobatic pranks
on the coverlet of my bed.”
The Kewpies first made their appearance in the 1909 Christmas issue
of The Ladies Home Journal. They appeared regularly in the Woman’s
Home Companion and Good Housekeeping for the next 25 years. In 1912,
the first Kewpie Kutouts were printed in the Woman’s Home Companion.
The Kewpie Kutouts were the brain child of Rose, who had taken the
idea of the paper doll to a new level. Rose thought that a paper
doll should have both a front and back giving it more play value.
She was the first person to design paper dolls this way. Immediately
after the Kewpie Kutouts appeared in Woman’s Home Companion,
children began clamoring for a Kewpie they could hold.
In 1913 the patent for Kewpie dolls and the KEWPIE trademark were
registered. The dolls were produced in nine different sizes by J. D.
Kestner Co. in Germany. The demand was so tremendous, that there
were twenty-one factories producing Kewpie dolls. Rose and Callista,
her sister and business manager, traveled to Germany to oversee
production. Rose found that the smallest ones were inferior in
quality to the others which distressed her. She told the workers
that this particular doll was being made for the poorest children
and for that reason they must be made as carefully as the others.
The quality of the smallest ones immediately improved.
Kewpies became an utter phenomenon. A merchandising boom swept over
the world in 1913 lasting for decades. Items from dolls to
doorknockers were produced bearing the image of Rose’s Kewpies.
Adults and children alike were mad for them.
By the late 1920’s, the Kewpie began to decline in popularity, but
never fell into total obscurity. Over the decades, Kewpies have made
a huge resurgence in popularity. There are Kewpie collector clubs
and Rose O’Neill fan clubs throughout the world. There is an annual
festival known as “Kewpiesta” held each April in Branson, Missouri.
To this day, new Kewpie merchandise continues to be manufactured and
sold. If you are in the market for an antique Kewpie, you should be
aware that they have become highly sought after and can command high
prices.
Kewpie Gallery
(Click thumbnail for full view.)
