Large Antique Schoenhut Roly Poly Santa Clause, Papier Mache German Style, Victo

This antique Santa Claus was made circa 1900, of papier mache and by the Schoenhut Toy Company. About the Philadelphia-based company: "Albert Schoenhut began producing toy pianos in a storefront on Frankford Avenue in 1872. By the 1880s A. Schoenhut and Company, manufacturers of novelty toys as well as toy pianos, moved into a larger building at 621-623 Adams (now Hagert) Street. By 1901, the company employed 125 workers at its enlarged factory on Adams Street...(where they produced)...giant dolls, model cannons and other novelties, in addition to toy pianos.... Five of Albert Schoenhut's six sons joined the business in the twentieth century: Albert F., William G., Harry E., Gustav A., and Otto F. A new five story factory stood on the corner of Adams and Sepviva Streets, eventually enclosing five and a half acres of floor space and holding four hundred employees by 1907. However, toy sales diminished after the Depression and the company declared bankruptcy in 1935."