The doll company called Josef
Dolls was established in the late 1940’s by its founder Muriel Joseph George in
California. She did not first start as a
doll maker but she was known as a jewelry maker with her company, Muriel of
California. She used Lucite to make her
jewelry, however during World War II the material was hard to purchase and so
she started using ceramics for her work.
This would then inspire her to make figurines and molded the ceramics to
shapes of animals, children, fairies, and angels.
After the war, Muriel expanded
her pottery venture and ordered labels for it with a print “Joseph”. But this did not go as planned since the
labels that came back had the print “Josef” instead. Since she could not wait for a batch of label
with the correct name imprinted on it, Muriel continued to use the misspelled
labels forever changed the company name.
Muriel’s dolls and figurines became popular that the Japanese doll
makers started to copy her some of her work around the 1950’s. However, the knock-offs were of poor
quality.
She was upset about the fact that
people would think that her creations have deteriorated in quality. This then prompted her to put so much detail
in her pieces that caused her items to be priced high. It also became a deterrent factor for people
to purchase her creations since these were not affordable as before. In 1954, she met George Good who would then
become her business partner after he convinced her to outsource the production
of her dolls in Japan. The company’s
name was then changed to George-Good Corporation. After initially overseeing the production in
Japan, Muriel went back to the United States and focused on designing her new
doll series.
After several years of hard work,
Muriel decided to retire in the late 1980’s for which George bought her shares
and continued the production of her dolls.
In 1985, George sold the company to Applause Incorporated which
subsequently changed its name to Dakin.
The dolls are still manufactured until today but these dolls are now
produced in Hong Kong. Muriel’s early
batch of dolls had the markings of M.J. George.
Thus, for collectors who are looking for vintage Josef pieces, look for
the mark “Josef Originals” and the letter C inside a circle at the bottom of
the item. Other markings are on a black
oval sticker with gold borders and letterings on it. Later pieces would normally have the mark
Made in Japan.
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http://www.weluvdolls.com/reborn-dolls/
http://www.weluvdolls.com/our-generation-dolls-and-horses/
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