
The Bing Brothers Art
Doll Company was founded by brothers
Ignaz and Adolf
Bing, was also
called Bing Werke or Bing Wolfe Corporation and reorganized as a holding
company in 1917 called Continental Supplies Center Concentra AG, the
largest toy concern in the world at that time.
During World War I this was the only toy factory in Nuremberg, Germany
that did not close.
Bing is best known for their
felt
art dolls which competed with Käthe Kruse and
Lenci
dolls, Bing used the trademark of Bing Beauty Art Dolls or Bing
Beauty Baby, a Bye-Lo type doll, plus others.
By 1928 the Bing Brothers Art Doll Company had become a large
corporation that included thirty-one subsidiaries with 4,000 employees, one of whom was
Louis Wolf which produced bisque
character dolls marked LWC, LW. & C., L. W. & Co., with bisque
heads by Hertel, Schwab & Co doll mold 152
and bisque head
Schutzmeister & Quendt doll
molds 201, 301. Also, rubber brightly
colored dolls of a cowboy, Dutch boy and girl, fisherman, native American Indian and sailor.
John Bing Company
of NYC, 1910-1925 held the American and Canadian rights for the Bing Art Dolls.
They also acted as an agent for Kämmer & Reinhardt,
Heinrich
Handwerck and probably other German doll manufacturers. In 1928 Max
Bing took over the operation, shortly thereafter Bing merged with L. Wolf and became the Bing Wolf
Corporation.
Bing Kunstlerpuppen und
stoff Spielwaren Gesellschaft 1921-1932 made felt art dolls,
much like the Kathe Kruse dolls and were also incorporated into the Bing
Art doll conglomerate. In 1932 the Bing conglomerate filed for bankruptcy.
Some antique Bing doll trade names are; 1912 Sunshine
Kid and Sunshine Girl dolls, 1915 Baby Darling, 1913 Baby
Irene (Louis Wolf), 1922 Pitti-Bum, 1925 Baby Sister, Happiness
Candy Store Dolls; 1925 Toddling Toodles doll or Baby Sunshine doll, 1926 Baby
Patsy doll, 1927 Beauty Baby doll.
Bing registered doll trade marks are; BING, BW, Concentra triangle and GBN, some of
which are shown below. |