Cotton rag doll

... and doll play can show many sides, from wild to warm, from warm to stubborn, from courageous to protective. This rag doll from Käthe Kruse lovingly joins in and lets your child play carefree. It is made of hard-wearing cotton jersey, filled with pure new wool, carefully stuffed and sewn by hand, painted and dressed - and so robust that it can be extensively involved in play and social interaction. The skin-friendly cotton invites cuddling, the relatively firm virgin wool filling makes the doll an upright counterpart with whom lively discussions can be held and excursions into fantastic worlds can be undertaken.

As a designated Waldorf doll, the gender-neutral design is discreet and the facial features are only hinted at - so your child is free to develop the most diverse ideas and involve their doll named Kurt, Käthe or Kim in all imaginable play situations. Well, perhaps you would like to intervene before your child asks the doll to taste the broccoli pesto or swim through puddle mud - after all, you can not only change her clothes in this case, even the hat is removable (not only for reasons of politeness). The wool-felted squirrel that accompanies the rag doll may also have some funny ideas up its sleeve. One thing is certain: this rag doll will never be boring.

When Käthe Kruse began to develop her own dolls in 1905, she was not thinking of commercial success. At the request of her eldest daughter, she had asked her husband, the sculptor Max Kruse, who lived in Berlin, to buy a doll and, according to tradition, received a typically Berlin answer: "No, I won't make you any dolls, I think they're crap. Make your own."

No sooner said than done, Käthe Kruse went on to design her own dolls in the image of her children. Their softness, pliability and lifelike design made Käthe Kruse's handmade play dolls stand out from the sea of conventional doll productions. Kruse won several prizes for her creations, received a major order from the USA in 1911 and founded her own doll factory. A purely family-run business until 1990, the company was finally taken over by Hape Holding in 2013 after a stopover with Andrea and Stephen Christenson. Despite the changes in ownership, the company has remained true to one thing throughout its more than one hundred-year history: all Käthe Kruse dolls are still made by hand using traditional doll-making techniques. This means that each doll is a unique toy that gains in individual history and personal value over time.