Wagner Labels

The Wagner workshop used a number of labels over the years. The information below comes directly from the Wagner family in correspondence I enjoyed with them for a brief time about a decade ago, when they kindly answered some of my questions that I'd stored up since I was a child.

A Wagner animal typically wears a paper label on its belly, if it's a four-legged standing animal, or simply on its underside if it's molded in a seated position. The dressed animals that stand up on two legs typically have the label adhering to the back of the head. The label can be used to date, approximately, when a figure was made.

Label 1

       Label 1, popularly known as "the monkey-head label," was
       used from 1951 to 1965, when Wagner produced animals
       for the Max Carl toy company in Coburg.











Labels 2 and 3: From 1966 to 1983, animals bore either a round or oval label that read "Handwork Künstlerschutz West-Germany" as well as a stylized F.W.

Label 2

Label 3

Label 4

 Label 4: From 1983 to 1990, the round label disappeared and the wording was changed to read simply "Wagner Handwork West-Germany."

Labels 5 and 6: Upon German reunification, the label was changed again, this time to read "Wagner Handwork Germany," and a larger oval label with a broad red border was put into service as well. These two labels were in use from 1990 until the company's closing in 1998.

Label 5

Label 6

Any other labels that you see would be markers of a different company, such as ones that say nothing more than "U.S. Zone East Germany" or the blue-and-white labels that read "Original Fur Toys."

I have not seen any indication that Wagner ever made these fur toys, though you will often see eBay sellers claiming that these animals are Kunstlerschutz, when actually many German workshops made composition and fur animals (among them the ever-popular "putz stick-leg sheep"). Which doesn't make them poor collectibles--lots of Wagner collectors add non-Wagner German animals to their collections, including me!--but still, truth in advertising is still a virtue.