Alt, Beck and Gottschalck

Alt, Beck & Gottschalck was a porcelain factory established in the Nauendorf, near Ohrdruf, Thuringia region of Germany in 1854. They started making doll heads somewhere between 1860-1880 and were exporting doll heads to the United States by 1882 until 1930 when production was ceased. Alt, Beck & Gottschalck made bisque and china shoulder head dolls for companies such as Borgfeldt, Bergmann, using Wagner and Zetzsche kids bodies. They also made china dolls, character dolls and baby dolls.

Alt, Beck & Gottschalck dolls are bisque dolls. Shoulder head dolls have kid or cloth bodies with bisque lower limbs. Child dolls with swivel heads usually have fully jointed composition bodies. Babies/toddlers have five piece composition bent limb bodies. Most dolls have either glass or painted eyes. They are wigged with mohair or human hair. Baby and toddler dolls are generally from the 1920's. Child dolls are from the 1880's to the early 1900's and later, and lady dolls are from the 1880's-1890's.