Kewpie Tea Set

Q: My mother, who is now 91 years old, played with her Kewpie dishes as a child in the early 1930s. They are white china with rose colored trim and daisy decoration. They all have chubby Kewpies in various poses and configurations. Each piece is marked on the bottom “Copyrighted, Rose O’Neill Wilson, Kewpie, Germany.” […]

Kewpies

Kewpies, plump, nude, elfin creatures designed by Rose O’Neill, were first pictured in the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1909. Art student Joseph Kallus translated O’Neill’s drawings into three-dimensional designs for Kewpie dolls and figurines, which started appearing about 1911. The big-eyed doll with the pug nose, slight smile, tiny blue wings, and topknot was an […]