Cellba dolls

Celluloid dolls have existed since 1896 and are dolls made with celluloid which is a group of plastic compounds. In 1918 the board of the Babenhausen Vorschuss- und Kreditverein decided to sell an estate to Heinrich Schöberl, which had previously been used as a comb factory. From 24 March 1924 it was officially the Celluloid goods factory Babenhausen and the production of dolls and floating animals began. The company grew fast, 1929 it had more than 100 employee. Someone form almost every family worked there and went to the so called “Bobbe”.

During the Second World War, parts of the factory were destroyed by bombs, but they got reconstructed after the war ended. After the currency reform 1948 the company made more and more profit. In March 1952 the company had invented two new types of plastic and sought the name protection for them. Almost the whole production changed after that. In 1964 Hermann Schöberl, the son of the founder, retired as a partner and the Cellba story ended in 1966 and an some American company bought it.

Cellba doll, Picture: Die puppenstubensammlerin 

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Heinrich Schöberl, the founder of the factory, always had a preference for dolls, so he stated to build his own dolls. He took his daughter’s face as a model for the doll faces. The trademark of this dolls was a mermaid. This was placed in the neck of the dolls.

The Cellba dolls of Babenhausen, are old dolls which were first sold in 1938 unclothed and then from 1950 the dolls were sold with cloths, because clothed dolls came into the trend. From 1938 - 1950 the dolls were made out of celluloid and after made out of vinyl. The dolls which were made of celluloid were prepared in several steps. At first they created a draft as a clay model of which a plaster model was then created and painted. Then they poured a metal shape that was used as a blowing room for the doll parts. Then the celluloid was pressed into the right form with hot steam. After the blowing process, the parts were then slowly cooled in cold water. After the doll parts got polished, they were built together and got hand-painted in most cases. Celluloid is a group of plastic which is made out of cellulose nitrate and campher. It is horny at normal temperatures and malleable at 90-100 degrees. The first celluloid was made in 1856 by an English man named Alexander Parkes.