Poodles
by Judith Lile and Jim Sneed
| The Schoenhut Poodles | |
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The poodle made its first appearance in 1904 soon after Schoenhut introduced the circus. It had a long production run that probably lasted until the company closed. We have photographed six distinct GE and PE poodle varieties. These are shown below. We have seen no decal eyes poodles. |
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Cloth Mane - Glass Eyes Schoenhut's first poodle was made with glass eyes and
an open mouth painted red inside with white teeth. Its most distinctive
feature is its cloth ears, mustache, and shoulder. The size of the
poodle is about the same as the tiger and lion. Maybe the bodies were
the same.
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 Photo by Judith Lile Carved Head - Glass Eyes The second design was made by hand tool carving the ears, mustache, and
shoulder. The legs may be the same as the earlier one with the cloth
mane or, more usually, legs with a turned fur ring near the feet. No other
circus animal has
this leg. This may be the rarest and certainly the most valuable
style. All poodle tails were white woven cord with a tip of wrapped cloth. 
Carved Head - Glass Eyes Versions Since this design had so much hand work, there was a lot of variation, especially in the heads. The shortage of glass eyes, precipitated by WWI, led to the painting of eyes.
These carved heads show two distinct versions of head carvings. Notice that the eye brows and neck areas are quite different. |
 Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Sneed Carved Head - Painted Eyes With the loss of their glass eyes, the company created the carved head and shoulder, painted eye version. The head may have been molded then the muzzle hand carved out. The the poodle's mustache is wider than its muzzle as can be seen in the photo below. The shoulder was made much like that of the GE carved poodle. This is the rarest regular sized PE style. Uncommon
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Molded Head - Painted Eyes The head and possibly the shoulder of the last regular style was molded out of a wood composition material. The mold line can usually be seen running vertically along the ears and across the top of the head. The mustache does not stand out from the muzzle. This is one of the most common of the circus animals. Keller Style IV - Common
Photo courtesy of Bertoia Auctions.
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 Photo by Judith Lile Reduced Size - Painted Eyes The last design made was for the reduced size circus. Its eyes and other face features were hand painted. The size of this design fits very well into a regular sized circus. This design is very hard to find in good condition.
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 Photo by Judith Lile
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