Vintage Collectible Hand Glove Toy Puppets: Spieldorst Steiff WDP Kersa

Vintage Collectible Hand Glove Puppets

Puppetry has its roots in ancient times as a form of entertainment and to educate. Puppets come in several forms, from simple sock puppets, to elaborate rod and string marionette puppets, some even life-sized as seen on stage in theatre productions. Many of the big plush toy maker's have produced/produce hand glove puppets such as Steiff, Kersa, Schuco, Spieldorst, Gund, Folkmanis, Ganz, Hermann, Chad Valley, Merrythought, Disney and many more. There are collectors who focus on just hand puppets, or on puppets that are a certain brand, or those made in a particular era.

Steiff Germany has made puppets for over 100 years.

A variety of Steiff Hand Glove Puppets

The Steiff puppets shown are made from a variety of materials including mohair plush, Dralon plush, felt, and Trevira velvet. Older puppets have a fibreboard tube inserted into the excelsior (wood wool) stuffing of the head, usually 1950s into the 1970s. The more modern Steiff puppets have plastic finger tubes and some puppets have vinyl plastic heads that are hollow to enable the finger space.

Steiff Wittie Owl Puppet

Steiff Frog Puppet

Steiff Lora Parrot Puppet

Steiff Leo Lion Puppet

Some popular animal hand glove puppets by Steiff Germany.

Steiff Punch Character Puppet

Two examples of a Punch character hand glove puppet by Steiff.

One of the popular street and theatre puppet shows was Punch and Judy. Crazy characters that pounded upon each other much to the amusement of the audience. In German, the character is Kasperle.

Spieldorst K.G. DDR (East Germany) produced many hand glove puppets in the Kasperle genre. Founded by Julius Walter Dorst in the Thuringen/Bavaria region, Spieldorst produced puppets with wooden heads, painted metal eyes, yarn hair and cloth or felt gloves. The hang tag shows a Clown Logo with a Star D, and Sonneberg Erscheinungsjahn. Due to being within the DDR region, information on this company is scarce. Some Spieldorst character puppets examples.


Spieldorst K.G. DDR Puppets

Spieldorst Hang Tag Label

Paper hang tag label showing the Spieldorst logo.

Spieldorst Devil Puppet

A particularly scary Devil hand glove puppet by Spieldorst.

A more modern iconic puppet character range was produced by Ganz, called Wrinkles. Originally invented by a small cottage industry puppet maker in Canada, Senitt, Ganz held the license for many years during the 1980s. Nowadays, a (new) Wrinkles can only be obtained from Senitt, Canada who remains in business. Wrinkles were hound dogs, but an elephant and a moose also joined the Wrinkles series. Usually a full sized complete animal with the head having the puppet feature for the hand, hand glove puppets were also made.

Ganz Wrinkles Dog Glove Puppet

An unusual Ganz Wrinkles Dog hand glove puppet.

All Ganz Wrinkles animals have a numbered leather neck tag and an embroidered bone logo on the lining of the ear.

Ganz Wrinkles Neck Tag & Logo

Senitt Canada Wrinkles Dog Puppet

A Senitt Canada Wrinkles full body puppet.

Senitt Bunny Puppet

Senitt Crow Puppet

A bunny rabbit hand glove puppet and a plush crow puppet, both by Senitt Canada.

Senitt Label

Seam label by Senitt Canada.

Folkmanis is a modern producer of high quality full sized animal puppets. From tiny finger puppets to life-sized animals, Folkmanis puppets make cuddly friends.

Folkmanis Eagle Puppet

Folkmanis Koala Puppet

Folkmanis Skunk Finger Puppet

Folkmanis seam label

W.(Wilhelmine) Walter KG (Kersa) was founded in 1925 in Lobositz, a small town in Bohemia in the western area of the Czech Republic about 30 miles from Prague. Wilhelmine originally made cloth & soft toys for her children. The Kersa

trademark began to be used in 1933 derived from the German phrase that means "artistically produced playthings". All teddy bears & soft toys up until 1956 have a little metal Kersa tag. In 1948 Kersa moved to Mendelheim Germany producing teddy bears, dwarves, Easter Rabbits and cats. In 1960 Kersa ceased production of teddy bears and concentrated on making cloth and wooden puppets. Today, Kersa is Germany's leading maker of hand puppets.

Kersa Character Hand Puppet

Kersa metal ID tag

A variety of Kersa hand glove puppets including a Punch full body puppet (in red).

Kersa Hand Glove Puppets

Chad Valley located in London, England, produced character puppets from one of the longest running children's TV programs, Sooty and Sweep.

Chad Valley UK Sooty & Sweep Puppets

Over the years, Sooty and Sweep were made in mohair plush and synthetic plush, with sewn noses and plastic noses.

Chad Valley Chiltern Seam Tag

Chad Valley acquired Chiltern Toys, and for a time, their seam labels reflected this merger.

Sooty Hand Puppet

A well-loved Sooty puppet missing his tag.

A classic Beefeater dressed Teddy Bear hand glove puppet by Merrythought.

Merrythought Puppet

Merrythought was founded in England in 1919 and is still in business today. Merrythought is an Olde English 17th century word for Wish Bone, their logo symbol.

Walt Disney Characters have been produced by various maker's for more than 70 years, depending upon who had the coveted license at the time. Under the Walt Disney Productions (WDP) label some cloth puppets with vinyl heads representing Mickey Mouse and friends, made in Korea.