The Eyes
of the
Schoenhut Circus
Regular sized Schoenhut circus animals are most commonly differentiated
by their eyes - glass eyes or painted eyes (GE or PE). What few collectors know
is that Schoenhut produced many of their later animals with an applied eye decal
- it was not painted. This article explores varieties of Schoenhut's glass eyes, painted eyes,
and decal eyes.
Schoenhut produced their glass eyed animals from the start of
the circus production in 1903 until about 1918 and produced painted eyed
and decaled eyed animals thereafter. Glass eyed animals are generally more desirable
with collectors since they are the earliest versions and appear more
life-like. The folk-art collectors seem to like the painted eyed animals.
Hand painting the eyes created a great deal more variety and strange and often
funny-looking expressions resulted. (see Judith
Lile's article on her favorite Schoenhuts).
Glass Eye Varieties
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A Style II GE lion with
yellow iris glass eyes.
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Glass eyes appear with at least two distinct iris colors - brown and
yellow. Some animals such as the elephant, can be found with either
color. This may have been simply because the production line ran out of
the correct eyes and they did what they needed to do to keep production
going. |
A GE polar bear with brown iris glass eyes.
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Painted Eyes
Schoenhut began painting the eyes of animals previously produced with
glass eyes in 1918 as a result of the loss of their German supply source due to
WW I. Also, at the same time, their source for German bisque heads also stopped thus
initiating the production of the one part head performers. The company then
redesigned their circus animal production and artists began painting eyes where
previously glass eye were inserted. This was not a great leap since the gorilla,
the goose, and the monkey had only been produced in a painted eye version.
Some painted eye varieties of animals are the rarest. A example of this is
the transitional painted eye tiger. The first PE tiger is identical to the GE
version including the full ball neck. It is very rare. The tiger was soon
redesigned to eliminate the ball neck. This single piece molded head tiger was
the last produced and is the most common tiger found.
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This PE Pig shows the extent to
which Schoenhut artists went to
achieve the expression they
wanted. This pig's eye was created
using five different colors - white,
pink, red, brown and black. Hand
painting is clearly evident.
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This fabulous, very primitive looking
PE leopard displays its hand
painted green eyes. The artist smeared
the eyebrows a bit and the
pupils are off center. This PE version
has a filled mouth with painted
canine teeth and is the rarest leopard.
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Typical painted eyes are
three
colored - white, brown, and black as
shown on this kangaroo. Notice
that there is a single dark
"eyebrow" above the eye. |
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The iris colors are commonly
green, brown, and rust. Sometimes
the whites of the eyes are
painted yellow. |
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Decal Eyes
In the depression years of the 1930s, Schoenhut was faced with a difficult
market for their toys. Production efficiencies to cut costs were necessary to
stay in business. One such move was to eliminate the hand painted eyes and substitute
an eye decal. The decal eyes animal variety is not generally differentiated
from painted eyes by most collectors but we think they should be. I don't believe
that all animals were produced with decal eyes but examples of the regular
sized alligator, Arabian camel, Bactrian camel, cow, donkey, deer, dark horse,
pig, rhinoceros, zebra and most reduced sized animals have been found. The
decal eyes are very likely the rarest versions of most, if not all, animals.
Decal eyes can be easily spotted since they have black borders all around
the eye except for the corners, and the iris and pupil are perfectly formed. The alligator and camel below
show off their decal eyes. I don't know how many color variations of the decal eyes
exist, if any.
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The decal eyes alligator.
Notice the
perfect circles of the iris and pupil and
the black border extending
all around the eye but open
at both corners. |
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The decal eyes camel. This
great looking
camel was probably among the last made
by Schoenhut. |
Now you know about the eyes of Schoenhut's circus animals.
