Elisabeth Pongratz Girl Doll Vintage 1989 - 90
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:10799 | Country/Region of Manufacture: Germany |
This beautiful handmade girl doll with cloth body and wooden hand carved and face was made by Elisabeth Pongratz in c. 1990. It is new old stock, handled only by art curators, and in mint condition with her wrist tag still on. She has been fully packaged and stored for almost all of her thirty year life. The colour of the wood on her face is almost white, which is extremely unusual for a Pongratz doll of her vintage since the wood naturally and very gradually darkens with light exposur...e. (I have another Pongratz doll of the same age who was kept on display although never in direct sunlight; in the doll on display, the colour of the face looks like a natural tan on Nordic skin, whereas this girl has very, very pale skin tone.) She has absolutely no scratches, dings, dent or marks and her cloth body and clothing is all in perfect condition with no pulls, threads, balling, holes or any other damage.
Clothes (dark blue puff sleeve dress with white cotton crocheted collar, one-piece handknitted undergarment, knitted bootees) are original to the doll and have never been removed. She is 14 1/4” tall. Inside her tag is the number ‘5049’ handwritten in pencil. She also has a semicircular brown Elisabeth Pongratz stamp on the back of her neck with the number ‘2280’ hand inked inside it.
I listed two Pongratz dolls recently including a boy in a blue knitted tunic. This doll (and one other baby which I’ll list) came from the same shipment as the boy in the blue tunic. They were ordered by my father, a specialist Australian toy importer, from Elisabeth herself on her second appearance at the Nuremberg Trade Toy Fair. He had discovered Pongratz at Nuremberg the year before, which was the first time she exhibited there, and had brought two dolls home with him which he had purchased direct from her at the Fair. However by the time he saw her a year later, she had a large waiting list and I remember this shipment took more than a year to arrive. After that he didn’t order any more because her waiting list had blown out to 3+ years and he was worried about the currency risk (at the time, our currency was sinking and the Deutschmark was very strong).
There are cloth dolls in very similar outfits (full cotton plain coloured dresses with cotton crocheted collars) in Pongratz calendars from 1990-1992, which accords with my memory of when Dad originally ordered these dolls.
Although in absolutely new condition I have listed this item as ‘used’ because it was displayed in a national exhibition of contemporary wooden toy design in 2006. This necessitated very careful unwrapping, display and packing by experienced curatorial staff.
Clothes (dark blue puff sleeve dress with white cotton crocheted collar, one-piece handknitted undergarment, knitted bootees) are original to the doll and have never been removed. She is 14 1/4” tall. Inside her tag is the number ‘5049’ handwritten in pencil. She also has a semicircular brown Elisabeth Pongratz stamp on the back of her neck with the number ‘2280’ hand inked inside it.
I listed two Pongratz dolls recently including a boy in a blue knitted tunic. This doll (and one other baby which I’ll list) came from the same shipment as the boy in the blue tunic. They were ordered by my father, a specialist Australian toy importer, from Elisabeth herself on her second appearance at the Nuremberg Trade Toy Fair. He had discovered Pongratz at Nuremberg the year before, which was the first time she exhibited there, and had brought two dolls home with him which he had purchased direct from her at the Fair. However by the time he saw her a year later, she had a large waiting list and I remember this shipment took more than a year to arrive. After that he didn’t order any more because her waiting list had blown out to 3+ years and he was worried about the currency risk (at the time, our currency was sinking and the Deutschmark was very strong).
There are cloth dolls in very similar outfits (full cotton plain coloured dresses with cotton crocheted collars) in Pongratz calendars from 1990-1992, which accords with my memory of when Dad originally ordered these dolls.
Although in absolutely new condition I have listed this item as ‘used’ because it was displayed in a national exhibition of contemporary wooden toy design in 2006. This necessitated very careful unwrapping, display and packing by experienced curatorial staff.
