Photos below: Hindsgaul Mannequins circa 1979
Photos by Marsha Bentley Hale

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Mr. Jorgen Kornbech and Lars Jorgensen told me the story of how their company used to import their mannequins from Europe until WWII. Up until then they mainly manufactured display fixtures and furnishings. When it was no longer feasible to receive mannequins from Europe they decided to develop their own. Their very first mannequin was appropriately named “Eve.”

Eventually the company developed the first viable plastic mannequin, following the Wolf and Vine fiasco. Their company saved a sample mannequin from each collection and stored them in a special warehouse.

When the company was expanding, a new warehouse was designed and constructed. One of the workmen thought he was being “helpful” destroying and tossing out the whole collection of their company’s historical mannequins.

Hindsgaul placed an ad looking for an original “Eve” mannequin but none was ever found. www.hindsgaul.com

While we were having coffee and Danish cookies, unbeknownst to me a notebook was sent for from their company library. It was filled with photos of early wax Pierre Imans mannequins.

The people at Hindsgaul shared their treasure trove of photos with me. Pierre Imans had an international reputation for the fine quality of his mannequins; he even sold mannequins to Russia at the early part of the 20th century.

I had studied wax effigies at the Westminster Abbey and wax mannequins at Madame Tussaud’s but the Pierre Imans figures had a quality unto themselves. I was enamored with their sculptural quality and though they were waxen there was a sense of soul and life in these commercial sculptures.

Hindsgaul was key to my search for documentation of historical mannequins.

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