Sunbonnet Babies

Sunbonnet Babies were first introduced in 1900 in the book The Sunbonnet Babies. It was the first children's school book to use the same characters for the entire text. The stories were by Eulalie Osgood Grover, illustrated by Bertha Corbett. The children's faces were completely hidden by the sunbonnets. The children had been pictured in black and white before this time, but the color pictures in the book were immediately successful. The Royal Bayreuth China Company made a full line of children's dishes decorated with the Sunbonnet Babies. Some Sunbonnet Babies plates have been reproduced, but are clearly marked. For more information, explore our identification guides for Royal Bayreuth and other German porcelain.