label I.D. help please.... Made in Switzerland, Marty & Co.

EndlessAlley

EndlessAlley

Alumni
I found this fabulous gown and have had no luck through internet searches on finding any information about the designer. The inside label reads Paul Kemp & Sobn Bonn. There is a hanging tag on the outside of the gown that reads: Marty & Co. Made in Switzerland. With such an international community here I'm hoping someone will be familiar with the names. Any information would be much appreciated. The gown is such a classic design I don't know if it can be dated, but would love help with that as well. Thank you.

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Gorgeous dress!

It is actually Sohn instead of Sobn. A google search resulted in 2 entries, both German. Here's some info from one:

Paul Kemp & Sohn,
Bonngasse 31 u. Friedrichstrasse 1 Tel.3O1
Hoflieferanten, gegründet 1792. Pelzwaaren, Herren- und Damenmoden
erster Firmen des In- u. Auslandes. Hüte, Handschuhe,
Schirme etc. Stets Lager sämmtlicher englischer Spiele.

Damenmoden translates to ladies fashions and handschuhe is gloves, hute is hats etc.
 
What a beautifully styled gown! From the hang tag, (if you could show a clearer picture of that, it would help) from what I can see of the hang tag, I would date it to the 60s or very early 70s.
The style is so classic that it makes it more difficult to date. Is the zipper a metal or nylon zipper?
 
thanks Deborah for your information. Do you think Paul Kemp is a department store name rather than a designer's name?

Thanks Mary Jane, the zipper appears to be nylon. Here is the hang tags image.

I was told this was an exclusive shop/name. Just trying to find out how high end.
And gown is actually black. I lightened images to show details....

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Do you think Paul Kemp is a department store name rather than a designer's name?
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Hard to say if it was a department store, but it was a retailer of mens and ladies fashions in Bonngasse (Bonn?), Germany. With the "made in Switzerland" on the hang-tag, Marty & Co. made the dress. It would be interesting to see how much $1200.00 German marks is worth today.
 
Wish I could update the thread title to note Made in Switzerland or Marty & Co. to catch her attention.

Looked up a currency conversion chart for late 1969... Marks to $1 was 3.66, so I guess the gown would have been approximately $350.00 in 1969.
 
I haven't looked in here because I've been too busy at work the last few days - one of my colleagues is on holiday.It's been a little crazy at work... (Mary Jane, thanks for alerting me to this :)).

This is an interesting thing!

So the tag reads:
Sonderanfertigung (made especially for)
Paul Kemp & Sohn (Paul Kemp & son)
Hoflieferantin Bonn (purveyor to the court, Bonn)

Bonn is the former German capital, from 1949 to 1991.

The info that Deborah found reads:
Paul Kemp & Sohn,
Bonngasse 31 u. Friedrichstrasse 1 Tel.3O1
Hoflieferanten, gegründet 1792 (founded in 1792)
Pelzwaren, Herren- und Damenmoden
erster Firmen des In- u. Auslandes. Hüte, Handschuhe,
Schirme etc. Stets Lager sämmtlicher englischer Spiele.
(Furs, gentlemen's and ladies' fashions by the first (best) foreign and German companies, hats, gloves, umbrellas etc. All English games always in stock)
@Deborah - could you show the link where you found this? I'm intrigued. The 3-digit phone number sounds like a very old one, but I don't know when they had 3-digit phone numbers in Germany.

So the company was founded in 1792, if the purveyors to the court bit relates to that, that court would have been the court of the elector of Cologne (which isn't far from Bonn), who were in power there til Napoleon came in 1795 - at least so Wikipedia tells me :).

For the life of me, I can't find anything on German Google that would relate to this Paul Kemp. The only one I found was a German actor who was born in Bonn, and is buried there, so all the hits I get are for him...

The very crazy thing is... the company name on the cardboard hang tag is the same as my family name, but I can tell you that my immediate family has nothing to do with that - or I would know :hysterical:. There is a distinction though - as a Swiss family name, both Marty and Marti exist, and they have their roots in different parts of the country. Marty's have their roots in central Switzerland, in the cantons of Uri and Schwyz - so the places where our history started, with the myth of the Rütli oath and all that. If you go there, you'll find more people whose family name is Marty than you could care for... :wacko: I don't live there though. I can't find anything that makes sense for Marty & Co. either. If one only knew from where in Switzerland it was, that would make it a lot easier...

Karin
 
Wow! So that was an address book entry from 1902.

Your Google led me to two more interesting pages: http://www.europese-bibliotheek.nl/...n_alten_Ansichten_Band_2/100-120570/artikel/2 this is a Dutch page on a book with old views of Bonn. The extract at the bottom talks about a round building that was built in 1912 in the Jugenstil, apparently in a part of the city that was newly built then. Further, it says that the fashion house Paul Kemp & Sohn, former purveyor to the court, was housed there from the time it was built until 1978, when they moved out. So Paul Kemp & Sohn existed until at least 1978.

This is even more fun: http://www.zeno.org/Naturwissenschaften/M/Fischer,+Emil/Aus+meinem+Leben/Gymnasialzeit
This is from a man writing about his life as a student in the 1860s. For a time he attended a higher school (Gymnasium) in Bonn. As he was living away from home, so he rented a room - with the Kemp family (apparently they must have had ample space to let rooms for paying guests - the writer wasn't the only one). That was in Bonngasse, so the same as in the address book entry. Further he writes that his host and his son had a business selling "Galanteriewaren", furs, articles for students, and - carnival costumes. Cologne and that region THE center of carnival traditions in Germany, so that bit doesn't surprise me at all :hysterical:. From what he writes, that house must have been a lively place!

According to Wikipedia, Galanteriewaren is an old word for fashion accessories, as well as costume jewelry and small nick-nacks like perfume bottles.

Karin
 
Must have been a lively place indeed!

Great that you are able to translate this information, Karin - thank you! Very interesting.

Galanteriewaren is a cool word. The origin of "galant" according to Oxford
"is Middle English (in the sense 'finely dressed'): from Old French galant, from galer 'have fun, make a show', from gale 'pleasure, rejoicing' "
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Lots of impressive research & history here! Thank you all.
This will be an interesting listing!!!
A final note on the gowns value....
$350 US dollars in 1969 converts to a value of $2,160 in today's market.
 
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