Photography challenge: B is for Baby

C’mon, give me a hug, you know you want to….

With its blue eyes and blonde tuff of hair, Bimbos Deluxe’s Kewpie mascot sits high above Brunswick St and watches over the comings and goings.

Created by Rose O’Neill, the Kewpie first appeared as a cartoon in The Ladies Home Journal in 1909 and was then regularly published for the next 25 years in different publications. “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 said in an interview with Hobbies Magazine.

The first Kewpie Kutouts appeared in the Women’s Home Companion magazine in 1912, a time when paper dolls were hugely popular. Rose, an illustrator, artist, sculptor and writer, designed the Kewpie paper dolls to have both a front and back. It was the first time that paper dolls had been made like that and children loved having a Kewpie that they could play with.

Building on its popularity, a Kewpie doll made from porcelain began to be produced in Germany in 1913. A bit like Hello Kitty, the Kewpie image was put on a whole range of merchandise from doorknockers to Kewpie Kameras. 

All things Kewpie remained in great demand until the late 1920’s. They might seem gone but they will never be forgotten. Kewpies fan clubs exist all over the world and the International Rose O’Neill Club Foundation holds an annual festival in the USA called Kewpiesta!

The Kewpie doll started to be made from celluloid (a type of plastic) in 1949. The antique porcelain Kewpies are highly sought after and worth a LOT of money… So keep your eyes peeled!