Fritz Bartenstein or Carl Bergner Antique Multi-Face Dolls German
ca. 1880s Fritz Bartenstein antique four multi-face white dolls heads; smiling, crying, closed and open mouths all on one doll
Fritz Bartenstein Antique Multi-Face Dolls 1880+ German
Fritz Bartenstein an inventor and doll factory owner from around 1880 until it closed in 1905, in Huttensteinach, Germany. Mr. Bartenstein was first employed in the doll industry at the Schoenau Porcelain doll factory in 1864. By 1880 he filed his first patent for a multi-faced doll with a pull string inside the head that turned the faces housed inside a hood and a second string inside the torso that simultaneously made the doll cry Mama, as shown in the two patent drawings below.
The antique doll socket heads are made of wax, composition or bisque with two doll faces laughing and two doll faces crying, either as a black doll or white doll or a white face and black face in one doll head.
In 1882 Bartenstein won a lawsuit against Peter Schelhorn a Täuflinge doll maker in Sonneberg, who sold multi-face socket head dolls without the inventors approval. The other well known German doll maker of multi face dolls is Carl Bergner.
Fritz Bartenstein Dolls and Doll Mark Identified
1880 Fritz Bartenstein multi-face doll design patent diagram of heads.
1880s Fritz Bartenstein multi two faced doll side view, doll heads are unmarked.
Fitz Bartenstein doll mark Patentirt in Deutschland or Deutscher Bartenstein U.S.P. No. 243,752 on the body.
Fritz Bartenstein Doll Mold Numbers Identified
871, 1913, 1914
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ca. 1911 Carl Bergner bisque multi-face black and white doll 12″ three faces, socket head, glass eyes, open or closed mouth, doll mark C.B.
Carl Bergner Multi-Face Dolls 1860+ German
Carl Bergner of Sonneberg, Thüringia, Germany is best known for his multi-face dolls first patented in 1904 or 1905. The dolls have two or three faces with each face having a different expression of crying, laughing, sleeping, with all black or white or both faces that you can rotate from the top of the head to show each face.
The bisque head dolls have a cloth body with composition limbs or an all composition jointed body. Bergner also made high quality single face bisque head dolls. Some Carl Bergner bisque doll heads were made by Simon & Halbig. In 1908 the company name was changed to Carl Bergner Nachfolger (successor) Fritz and Alma Masser.
Carl Bergner Dolls Identified
ca. 1905 Carl Bergner multi-face bisque doll head side view of inside the hood
ca. 1904 Carl Bergner multi-face doll showing the two types of bodies
ca. 1934 Carl Bergner Shirley Temple doll 23″, all composition socket head, blonde short curly mohair wig, glass sleep eyes, open mouth with teeth, jointed body, doll mark C.B.
Carl Bergner Doll Marks Identified
Carl Bergner doll mark CB inside a circle Germany
Carl Bergner doll mark CB inside a circle stamped in blue ink
Carl Bergner doll mark 450 DEP S & H
Carl Bergner Nachfolger doll mark Cabena, after 1930