Ludwig Greiner was a doll maker who emigrated to America from Germany in the 1830's. He became the most famous papier mache doll maker to set up production in America. He took out the first American patent for dolls in 1858. He was also renowned for doll eye production. Some people believe that he emigrated to America with the sole purpose of opening a papier mache doll company although this is purely speculation.

Greiner dolls were very similar in style to the German Papier Mache dolls, with cloth bodies and moulded hair. Germany made papier-mache doll heads of various sizes during the early years of the nineteenth century. Most of these had glass eyes. Some dolls were almost life-sized. Pre-Greiner is the term used for larger ones with glass eyes. This is because because collectors used to think that all papier-mache dolls were made by Ludwig Greiner. Pre-Greiner dolls, made from 1840 to 1845 had, for the most part, eyes of blown glass whereas Greiner used pairaed eyes in his dolls.