Fritz Bartenstein or Carl Bergner Multi-Face Dolls German
ca. 1880s Fritz Bartenstein antique four multi-face white dolls heads; smiling, crying, closed and open mouths, on one doll
Fritz Bartenstein Multi-Face Dolls 1880+ German
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 Doll Mark Identified
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
Fritz Bartenstein Doll Mold Numbers Identified
871, 1913, 1914
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1903 Carl Bergner multi-face black and white doll 12″ three faces
Carl Bergner Multi-Face Dolls 1860+ German
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 with each face having a different expression of crying, laughing, sleeping, with all black or white or both faces, that you 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 Nachf.
Carl Bergner Dolls Identified
1905 Carl Bergner multi-face doll side view of inside the hood
1903 Carl Bergner multi-face doll showing the two types of bodies
1934 Carl Bergner Shirley Temple doll face 23″
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 doll mark Cabena
Carl Bergner Doll Mold Numbers Identified
407 450 527 725
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