Manufacturer
Gund Mfg. Co.

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MEET THE PUPPETS: Gallery One

(To learn more about each puppet, click on any image in our

unique "Clic-A-Pic" Galleries. Most provide links to

classic cartoons or movies in which the characters on which the

puppet was based are shown!)

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MEET THE MANUFACTURER: Adolf Gund

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Born in 1869 in Germany, Adolf Gund came to the U.S. in 1894.

Four years later, he married Luise Bigler, also from Germany. To Ridgefielders in the 1930s, the old man with the German accent might have been Geppetto. Working in his shop in the barn behind his house, the white-haired retiree created marvelous stuffed animals. People came from far and wide to acquire his creations, made mostly because he loved to make them.

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The man was Adolf Gund, who years earlier had founded the Gund Manufacturing Company, “creator of novelties” that included some of the earliest Teddy Bears.

Today Gund stuffed toys are sold around the world, both new and as antique collectibles, thanks to a man who loved making things for children but who had no children of his own. He began a toy store in 1890's, but sales were so good the business moved from loft to loft in the lower east side of NY.

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Factory workers pose with Adolf Gund, 9th Street Loft, 1922

 

Gund holds, or has held licensing agreements in the past, with companies such as Sesame Street, Peter Rabbit, Curious George, Studio Ghibli, Hello Kitty, PAW Patrol, and Toca Boca. This award-winning company, now located in Edison, New Jersey, was also the face of a United States Postal Service stamp. Gund is currently a division of Spin Master, which acquired the company from Enesco in March 2018. In the 1980s, China became one of Gund's primary sources for stuffed toys. 

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- from the Ridgefield, NJ Press

  (1907 - 1997)

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