Bartenstein or Bergner Multi-Face Dolls German

1880s Fritz Bartenstein multi two faced dolls faces

Antique Fritz Bartenstein four multi-face white dolls heads smiling, crying, closed or open mouths

Fritz Bartenstein an inventor and doll factory owner (1880-1905) was first employed in the doll industry at the Schoenau Porcelain doll factory. 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 on left.

The antique doll socket heads are made of wax, composition or bisque with two doll faces laughing and two 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 selling multi-face socket head dolls without the inventors approval.

The other well known German doll maker of multi face dolls is Carl Bergner shown below.

Fritz Bartenstein Dolls and Mark Identified

Antique Fritz Bartenstein multi-face doll design patent diagram left head, right body torso

1880 Fritz Bartenstein multi-face doll design patent diagram of heads.

1880s Fritz Bartenstein multi two faced doll side view

Fitz Bartenstein doll mark Deutscher Bartenstein U.S.P No. 243,752 or Patented in Deutschland

Shop for dolls — Shop for antique Bartenstein multi face dolls

Fritz Bartenstein Doll Mold Numbers Identified

871, 1913, 1914

Carl Bergner Dolls 1860-1930s German

1903 Carl Bergner multi-face black doll 12" faces

1903 Carl Bergner multi-face black and white doll 12″ three faces

Carl Bergner of Sonneberg, Thüringia, Germany is best known for his bisque multi-face dolls first patented in 1904 to 1905. The dolls have two or three faces, each with a different expression of crying, laughing, sleeping with black or white faces or both faces, that can be rotated from the top of the head.

The bisque head dolls have a cloth body with composition limbs or a 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 Nachf.