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1961 Ingber "Mirrador" handbag with sliding mirror door on its frame. Mirror door... Mirrador... get it? đ From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.
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With Input From Ingber Family Members
Ingber & Co. was a prolific handbag maker based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from the early 1900s until the late 1960s. It was a family-run company, with several generations involved, and many different styles and fabrics used in the manufacture of countless handbags.
The Vintage Purse Museum started researching Ingber eight years ago, but set it aside knowing we'd get back to it later. Since then, we've found many more resources for our handbag history articles. In addition to this bounty of online information, we connected with relatives of the founders of Ingber.
Be sure to scroll all the way down to see photos of some of the Ingber handbags in our collection, including those with special features, as well as vintage newspaper and magazine advertisements. These bags are not in chronological order of manufacture, but we tried to keep the company's history somewhat linear.
The Family
We begin with Aaron and Anna Ingber, parents of Isaac and David, who are often said to have established the Ingber company in 1903. However, the timeline varies in old reports, which we explain later in this article.
Aaron Lieb Ingber (1864-1918) and Anna (Chana) Goldstein Ingber (1864-1944) had seven children, Rose Ingber Lipshutz (1882-1944), Isaac Wolf Ingber (1883-1960), Bertha Ingber Halpren (1885-1949), David Abraham Ingber (1887-1961), Samuel E. Ingber (1889-1952), Jennie Ingber Mordell (1898-1999), and Nathan Ingber (1900-1972). Isaac changed his middle name from Wolf to William, which he often used as a first name in business, and was known by family members as Willie (or Willy).
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| 1940s Ingber black faille pouch with faux tortoise plastic frame and pannier (wrist) handle. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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Pre-1948 label inside bag above. This logo was said to have been based on the signature of Benjamin Ingber, son of David A. Ingber. Ad for a similar bag directly below. 16 Feb 1947, Sun Syracuse Herald-Journal (Syracuse, New York) Newspapers.com |
Some records state that Aaron was born in Austria, and Anna was born in Russia. Records also indicate that some of the children were born in Austria and some in Russia, but it should be noted that genealogy archives are not always accurate. In fact, one of the Ingber relatives (name withheld at their request) told us about Bertha, whose name was not included among Anna and Aaron's children's names in our initial search.
The relative told us that Aaron came to the US before his wife Anna. The Vintage Purse Museum can share possible reasons for this. Some familiesâin particular Jewish people who were escaping escalating antisemitism and pogromsâwere unable to flee together.
Also, many families emigrating to the US were separated at port cities such as Bremen, Germany and Liverpool, England while they waited for an available ship. (The US created an immigrant quota system in 1924, but had already limited immigration years prior to this date. Many European immigrants established residency in South America and elsewhere until they were allowed entry to the US.)
On Aaron's 1903 US naturalization application (granted in 1906) his sponsor was listed as his brother, Jacob M. Ingber (1871-1908), who owned a Pennsylvania shirtwaist factory. Aaron said he came to the US in November 1900 on the ship Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse, leaving from Bremen and arriving in New York. If this date is accurate, then it was a particularly harrowing voyage. Norwayheritage.com cites the notes of Captain H. Englebart, who wrote that on this journey, the ship lost a propeller blade, ran aground, endured storms, and got entangled in buoy chains.
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| 1950s black satin Ingber bag with beauvais embroidery. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
On a 1906 passport application, Aaron said he was in an unspecified manufacturing industry. Based on this reference, we speculate that he was a silent partner in his sons' handbag company, as he was better known as the namesake of the Aaron L. Ingber Building and Loan Association, which went on for several years after his death in 1918. (We found a business name filing for the association dated 1920, with Aaron's son Samuel as president. It appears that the company dissolved in 1936 while under different ownership.)
The Ingber relative told us that Aaron's son Isaac came to the US when he was 16 or 17, and worked for an uncle who owned a shirtwaist business. This would have been Aaron's brother Jacob. (There was another Isaac W. Ingber, b.1867-d.1905, who may have been another brother of Aaron's. He is interred at the same Philadelphia cemetery as other Ingber relatives. There was also a David M. Ingber who lived in the same time and area as David A. Ingber, but was part of another branch of the Ingber family.)
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The Vintage Purse Museum's gray and plaid wool Ingber shoulder bag in fabulous condition. Matching 1948 newspaper ad below.  08 Oct 1948, Fri Nashville Banner (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com |
In a 1954 newspaper article (pasted at the bottom of this article), David A. Ingber says that Ingber handbags began in 1903, when his father Aaron, then "secretary of a small loan association," received a bounced $10 check, which was written by a bag manufacturer. According to David, this manufacturer needed $1,000 to get out of financial difficulties. Aaron was able to make a deal with the manufacturer, whereby he put David, then 16 years old and working for a handbag framer, and David's oldest brother Isaac in charge of the company, which had three employees. (Isaac and David were later associated with their brother Samuel's paper stock and rag business, the Samuel E. Ingber Company, incorporated in 1924.)
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| Iconic 1955-1956 Ingber safety-pin handle bag, often considered a "Holy Grail" among collectors. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| 11 Nov 1956, Sun The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com |
The Early Days of The Ingber Bag Company
1903 - Trunks, Leather Goods and Umbrellas, a trade publication, reported that the Keystone Leather Novelty Co., run by B. Lewis and N. Brumer, was dissolving, and that B. Lewis and I.W. Ingber would "continue under the same style." We're not sure what this means as Keystone Leather had many more advertisements in subsequent years, and appeared to be thriving (per newspaper articles). It is possible that Mr. Lewis and Mr. Brumer sold their interests in Keystone to another owner, but not to the Ingbers, as this is when Isaac when into business with a Mr. Reiner. The Ingber & Reiner partnership falls in line with David's 1954 story of his father Aaron helping to fund Isaac and David's handbag business in 1903.
1904 - A classified ad for Ingber & Reiner was seeking an experienced salesman for "advertising novelties." These novelties may have been leather coin purses with spaces for advertising cards, which was a common marketing tool for businesses during this era. We believe Mr. Reiner may have been Charles Reiner, whom we found in a 1901 Philadelphia address directory, which listed his occupation as "leatherwkr."
1905 - There were several ads for Ingber & Reiner, including one for a girl to for make "pocketbooks and bags" and another for a leather goods cutter.
1906 - There was a fire at 1033-1035 Race St., which affected a number of businesses, including the Ingber & Reiner factory, which had a loss of $4,673.38 (roughly $165,000 in today's purchasing power). This appears to be when Ingber & Reiner separated, asâalso in 1906âa New York office was established for Isaac W. Ingber & Co. at 565 Broadway, under the direction of Harry E. Lang. (Later, it would be Jacob Meyer at Ingber's 547 Fifth Ave. showroom. Youngest brother Nathan Ingber joined the company around 1919 and was eventually in charge of the New York location.)
1907 - The company was reestablished at 539 Spruce St. in Philadelphia as Ingber & Co., with eldest brother Isaac at the helm, and without Mr. Reiner. This new name and address would explain why some reports state that Ingber started in 1903, and, alternately, in 1907.
1908 - Ingber & Co. encountered some financial difficulties and had to sell off its "stock" (presumably meaning inventory) in 1909.
1910 - It was announced in The Philadelphia Inquirer that "Ingber Fancy Leather Manufacturing Company" would be leasing 5,000 square feet of space at 1215 Market St.
1916 - Ingber & Co., headed by David Ingber, 1215 Market St., was among the companies listed in the Philadelphia Board of Trade's Annual Report.
1922 - Ingber & Co. was an exhibitor at the National Merchandise Fair in New York, with Nathan Ingber representing the company in booth #676.
1925 - The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce reported that Ingber had more than doubled its production of silk and fabric bags in the first few months of 1925 compared to that same period in 1924.
As with many bag makers of the 1920s-1930s, there were labor disputes at the Ingber factory. This took a disturbing turn in 1928, when a bomb exploded just outside of David Ingber's home on Parkside Ave. Luckily, no one in the four homes affected by the bombing was injured. While one newspaper article indicates that David Ingber's home was meant to be the recipient of the blast, a neighbor who owned a garment factory was also considered a possible target. There were no further mentions of worker issues at Ingber until 1933, when a tussle occurred among striking workers, causing minor injuries.
This was rectified that same year, with newly negotiated labor terms for the 215 Ingber employees. Soon after, the Ladies Handbag Code Authority was established under the auspices of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), a short-lived government agency formed as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
In 1934, David Ingber was among several handbag makers with businesses outside of New York City that took issue with the unfairness of the NRA. (He was not alone; many manufacturers in dozens of other industries were adversely affected by the NRA's codes.) New York handbag manufacturers were located in what was essentially the garment capital of America, and not only had labor and geographical advantages, but the lion's share of the handbag market, while the Ingber company was in Pennsylvania.
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| Ingber evening bag with built-in watch, circa 1954, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
The NRA was dissolved by Supreme Court decision in 1935 due to unconstitutionality, but the Handbag Authority remained as a trade organization, with the goal of ensuring that handbag companies paid their employees a living wage and provided good working conditions. Members of the Handbag Authority were also required to comply with a strict code of conduct. One common concern of midcentury handbag makers was that of patent infringement and unfair competition, which was widely litigated in individual disputes over decades, some with precedent-setting results.
David and Isaac's brother Nathan testified on behalf of defendant Edward Cerreta in a well-known and highly contentious 1940 legal case where another bag maker was suing Mr. Cerreta, a former employee, for unfair competition over the rights to the name "corde," an embroidery technique and/or product name used by many handbag manufacturers, including Ingber. During his testimony, Nathan said the Ingber company had produced a whopping 250,000 corde bags in 1928 alone.
As Nathan was based in New York, it is reasonable to assume he was the primary liaison for department store buyers and other business connections for the Ingber bag company. Most midcentury handbag makers had offices and showrooms in bustling New York City, even if their factories were located elsewhere. Ingber also had Los Angeles and Chicago locations (at various points in time), which were likely just small offices for their West Coast and Midwest sales representatives.
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"Persian print" 1950s fold-over clutch with coin purse and mirror. This was a very popular Ingber style, and came in different colors, patterns, and fabrics. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.
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In 1937, there was a sale of "salvage stock" at the Ingber factory, then located on the third floor of 1307 Market St., presumably because they were moving to a new location.
In 1938, the Ingber & Co. business name was registered (per a newspaper notice) by David Ingber and Isaac Ingber at 2701 Broad St. The Ingber factory and headquarters' address changed several times over the years, eventually landing at its final location of H and Westmoreland Streets in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. That same year, the brothers took out an ad in Vogue magazine (pictured directly below).
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| August 1938 Vogue magazine ad, screenshot via LAPL database/Proquest. |
Sadly, 1938 was also when David lost his 20-year-old son Martin to a blood infection. A newspaper article detailing Martin's health battle revealed that he'd had "a talent for sketching and did most of the designing for his father's firm."
Ingber's Use of Print Ads and Other Media
The first newspaper advertisement for Ingber bags that we could find in the archive to which we subscribe was from 1939 and is pictured directly below. This does not mean Ingber didn't advertise in previous years, but 1938 was the first magazine ad we could find, and 1939 the first newspaper ad.
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22 Jun 1939, Thu Corpus Christi Times (Corpus Christi, Texas) Newspapers.com |
Among Ingber's innovative promotions was a 1947 10-minute Technicolor film about their brand, which was said to have been shown in department stores and to women's groups. We could only find a mention of this in a trade publication, and unfortunately couldn't locate the actual film.
The most intensive early marketing of Ingber bags appears to have taken place in the late 1940s. In addition to newspaper ads and several short films, the Ingber company also made copious use of Vogue magazine, which was quite an expensive advertising platform. Many of these advertisements were very creative, and integrated the popular culture and entertainment of the day.
One clever 1950 Vogue ad, part of Bonwit Teller's "Philadelphia Fashion" promotion, was of a model carrying an Ingber bag, at a baseball game, flanked by two real Philadelphia Phillies players (shown directly below). All that was missing was the apple pie!
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| 1950 Vogue ad for Bonwit Teller and Ingber bags. Screenshot from the LAPL database/Proquest. |
The Vintage Purse Museum spoke via email with Isaac "Willie" Ingber's grandson and Bernard Ingber's son Rick Ingber (name used with permission). He shared a fond memory from June 1964. "That was the summer of the Worldâs Fair in New York," he wrote. "My father would normally spend a week or two in the summer in Manhattan each year because there were a lot of shows in the design industries in the summer. I remember that time very clearly. I went to New York with my dad. When we woke up on June 21, which was Fatherâs Day, my father said letâs not go to the Worldâs Fair, letâs go to Shea Stadium. The Mets were playing the Phillies. That was a double header and Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game in the first game."
This childhood memory is a clue to how important baseball and the Ingber logo were to the history of the Ingber bag company. Keep reading for one of our best research rabbit holes ever.
Evolution of a Logo
We found a snippet in a handbag trade publication that said Ingber bags were featured in a commercial in the second-ever televised World Series of 1948. The handbag trade publication indicated that there were "live dachshunds" used in this commercial. Because this snippet wasn't completely viewable due to copyright limitations, we don't have all the details, but we can tell you that this tiny mention tells a big story.
The ad directly below shows not only what we mean by the integration of a pop culture reference, but Ingber's first trademarked logo.
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| June 1948 Vogue magazine ad for a bag with heraldic motif, inspired by the 1948 musical comedy "Emperor Waltz." Heraldic motif handbags, belts, shoes, and jewelry were popular from about 1948-1952. Screenshot from the LAPL database/Proquest. |
Prior to 1949, the Ingber logo was a script-style font of its name only. This appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office database, with a filing date of 1945, stating it was a facsimile of the signature of Benjamin Ingber (son of David Ingber), and that other forms of this script logo had been in use since 1910. Then, in 1957, Ingber filed a patent for its slogan, "The Best Thing on Your Arm," with a note that this phrase had been in use since 1948.
1948 was the year that the alleged commercial with the alleged dachshunds that appeared during the World Series. Before we share what we discovered, we must tell you that for years The Vintage Purse Museum was under the impression that the logo inside Ingber bags was that of a stylized sewing machine.
Oh, how wrong we were.
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| Ingber's gold dachshund imprint from the lining of one of The Vintage Purse Museum's bags. |
It's a dachshund. Not just any dachshund... a dachshund wearing a handbag, demonstrating how Ingber bags were "The Best Thing on Your Arm." We credit Rick Ingber, to whom we are grateful for telling us that this logo is a dachshund. Without this information, we wouldn't have been able to figure out its probable origins.
We found a 1948 Vogue advertisement for Ingber bags that used a dog as its logo. But it was not a dachshund. It was a poodle. Then we found a 1949 Vogue advertisement that used the dachshund logo in the ad copy and had a sketch of a woman wearing an Ingber bag and walking a dachshund. (Poodle and dachshund ads directly below.)
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August 1948 Vogue magazine ad featuring a poodle. This did not last long, as Ingber eventually adopted the dachshund as its logo. Screenshot from the LAPL database/Proquest.
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How and why was this advertisement created? Our theory is that, in 1948, the Ingber brothers and their marketing team decided to use a poodle logo instead of the Ingber signature on their labels and bag linings. But when the 1948 World Series dachshund commercial made a splash, they switched their poodle to a dachshund. We do wonder if the brothers initially planned for a poodle to appear in the commercial, but the dachshund was substituted for a reason that is likely lost to time. We sincerely wish we knew the full story, and of course we would absolutely love to see that commercial. (We reached out to the Major League Baseball film archives but did not receive a response.)
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1954 Ingber brown wool bag from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Matching ad directly below. 01 Dec 1954, Wed The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) Newspapers.com |
Post WWII Years - 1940s-1950s
The years 1948-1949 appeared to be a pivotal time for the Ingber company. In a September 1948 newspaper article, David Ingber, president of Ingber, the "largest maker of women's medium-priced fabric bags in the country," explained that the industry had swelled from 200 bag makers to 600 during WWII (1939-1945). However, many of these companies had subsequently gone out of business.
David Ingber said these makers were "...casualties of consumer resistance to price and quality and the restoration of competitive conditions to what is perhaps America's most competitive industry." Another issue was the speed at which styles change, and some bag makers' inability to meet the demand. David also mentioned the leather shortage. (1948 article below.)
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Very chic Ingber animal print bags, 1950s-1960. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 02 Dec 1954, Thu Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, Montana) Newspapers.com 04 Oct 1960, Tue Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) Newspapers.com |
As we've explained in previous articles, during WWII, leather was rationed to bag makers, who had to utilize other materials (such as plastics) to produce their wares. Leather shoes required ration coupons for consumers to purchase them from 1943-1945, but leather handbags were not rationed. However, the quality and quantity of store-bought leather bags was reduced.
Also, starting in 1944, handbags were subject to a 20% federal excise "luxury" tax, which greatly affected handbag industry profits, as it led to large numbers of women declining to purchase bags in stores for every season and to match every outfit. Many consumers resorted to home-crafting their handbags. Raw materials such as crochet cord, zippers, and zipper pulls used to make bags were not taxed at 20%.
In 1948, Ingber was producing 2,000 handbags a day. We have no doubt that this was due to consistency in quality, as well as a great marketing team.
As we mentioned previously, Ingber was excellent at utilizing innovative forms of advertising. In 1949, a 10-minute film appeared on WPTZ (then in Philadelphia), depicting a "pretty girl carrying various Ingber handbags for various occasions."
Also in 1949, there was an article in Tide magazine, an advertising industry publication, that said Ingber would include a "pastel pink" love letter in its Christmas handbags to help out "tongue-tied masculine gift shoppers."
Ingber & Co. had a long relationship with Philadelphia's Lit Brothers department store, and even played against their team in a corporate basketball league. In 1950, Ingber workers set up a weeklong handbag manufacturing demonstration in the window of Lit Brothers.
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| Brown velvet and rayon Ingber bag with 4-page card-stock brochure. Printed on the back page of the brochure is a 1951 calendar. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
A 1953 edition of Educational Film Guide lists Ingber Inc.'s 1950 "Best Thing on Your Arm" six-minute film, produced by the Leonard Fenman Agency, and featuring "A tour through the Ingber factory showing the steps of manufacturing handbags."
There was also a 1951 magazine advertisement with model, actress, newscaster, stockbroker, US ambassador, and women's rights activist Robin Chandler (1923-2016), a variety of Ingber bags, and a visible WNBT/NBC television camera, making it appear as if she was about to go on-air. (We were unable to obtain this ad, but below is another creative 1951 Vogue advertisement.)
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| February 1951 Vogue ad featuring a Dali-esque man portraying a handbag artist. Screenshot from LAPL database/Proquest. |
Per a brief mention in a 1952 newspaper article, David Ingber also headed a company referred to as "Philadelphia Handbag Manufacturing Co., Inc." We found a Philadelphia Hand Bag Co., Inc. filed in 1931 in the Pennsylvania business name database, but we couldn't access the paperwork filing for details, so we're not sure why he had this separate business entity.
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| Ingber "key reel" bag, with built-in self-retracting chain for your keys, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Ad from March 30, 1952, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), clipped via paid subscription to Newspapers.com. |
While we have an appreciation for all Ingber handbags, we believe that the 1950s-1960s were the best years for Ingber designs. The Vintage Purse Museum is delighted to have some of the special pieces from these decades in our collection, including the 1952 key reel bag, the 1955-1956 safety pin-handle bag, and the 1961 Mirador hidden mirror bag, all pictured above. Below is a video of our precious Ingber 1961 musical evening bag. (Be sure to turn on the sound!)
Ingber's 1961 musical evening bag from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.
Constance "Connie" Ingber (1945-2007), the sister of Rick Ingber, gave invaluable information to The Bag Lady (one of our favorite resources) regarding the Ingber company's foray into cinema. (You can see The Bag Lady's Ingber page here.) In her interview with The Bag Lady, Connie shares how Ingber bags were used in the film Marjorie Morningstar (1958), and that Ingber was responsible for David Niven's iconic carpet bag in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).
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| Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven carrying the Ingber carpet bag. Screenshot from YouTube. |
Ingber created carpet and tapestry bags in the years prior and subsequent to the release of Around the World in 80 Days, but the only film industry mention that we could find of the Ingber connection was a snippet in a 1957 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. (Again, not all publications are viewable in their entirety due to copyright restrictions, so we couldn't access an exact quote.) However, the 2013 book Movie Roadshows by Kim R. Holston says in its chapter about the film: "The Ingber Company offered handbags and traveling bags modeled after Niven's traveling bag."
We found the 1957 newspaper ad below, which we think is a good representation of Ingber's consumer-friendly homage to their David Niven bag.
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| Benjamin Ingber welcomes fashion students to the factory in 1957. The Philadelphia Inquirer, clipped via Newspapers.com. |
The 1960s
This leads us to the last decade of Ingber & Co. We found quite a few newspaper advertisements and advertorials, but we were hoping to get some personal stories from the family. Rick Ingber kindly obliged.
He told us that his memories are somewhat limited from that time as he was quite young, but he believes that Isaac was responsible for company finances, while Bernard oversaw the factory, and Benjamin and David handled the marketing.
Isaac was bedridden for a long time before he passed away in 1960, and his brother David Ingber died just a year later. Of the seven children of Aaron and Anna Ingber, this left Nathan and Jennie. The Ingber handbag company was now run by Isaac's son, Rick's father Bernard (1914-1996), and David's son Benjamin (1915-1964).
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| Ingber tapestry bag, circa 1960s, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum |
Rick shared with us that his grandfather set aside a small trust for his five grandchildren, and Rick used his to help pay his college tuition. He also told us that his father had graduated from Temple University's dental school, but never practiced dentistry because there wasn't much call for dentists during the Great Depression (1929-1939), and went straight into working for the family business.
"Since most teachers during my school years were female, my parents always gave pocketbooks to my teachers for Christmas," wrote Rick. "As I had two older sisters, whose teachers were also similarly gifted, teachers were very nice to me when Christmas approached."
Rick and a cousin (name withheld for privacy) worked for the company during summer breaks from school. "The factory was at H & Westmoreland Streets in Kensington. Kensington is a neighborhood of Philly," Rick wrote. "It was pretty run down by the time I worked summers in the factory. It was three floors and, if I recall correctly, took up an entire block. Of course since I was a kid back then I may be imagining it as bigger than it actually was. I think around 150 employees (at its peak) but that is a pure guess. Willie died before I ever worked or visited the property but he did work there, as did my father and David and Ben."
Rick's late sister Connie told The Bag Lady that Benjamin had been the head designer for the firm, but passed away at the young age of 49 in 1964.
The Vintage Purse Museum found an article from 1964 that says Terry Ritter was Ingber's designer, although she was associated with the company as early as 1962, when she was an Ingber representative at an accessories show in Baltimore. She later went to work for Pursenalities, a DIY bag company. (Newspaper photo of Terry Ritter directly below, with our matching Ingber bag following.)
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| 1964 Ingber buttery soft pink Cabretta leather bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Interior of bag above. Ingber often used a striped lining. |
In 1967, Maria Trezza was designing handbags for the company, but we could find no further information about her. By then Ingber & Co. was approaching its final days.
"Although I never thought much about it during my college years, the business was clearly going downhill starting a number of years before 1968," wrote Rick. "My folks sold their home and moved to an apartment around 1965. I suspect they would have remained in the house if finances were not an issue, at least until my sister moved out and after I graduated from college. In other words, not your typical downsizing. During my junior year in college they moved again to a smaller and less expensive apartment."
Rick told us that his father had put most of his personal funds into the business in order to keep his workers employed. The Vintage Purse Museum told Rick that, based on our research of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), this was a very noble thing to do. The 1964-1967 "Kennedy Round" of GATT pretty much eradicated most US manufacturers' ability to continue to produce handbags domestically. Many US bag makers were essentially forced to become importers (if they weren't already), but some had no choice but to shut down.
"The business closed its doors sometime during my freshman college year which was 1967-1968," wrote Rick. "I am certain of this time as when I came home from college after my freshman year I asked my father when we were leaving for the factory (was to be my summer job again) the next day and he said the business was closed. I asked him why he never told me anything until I came home from college and he said he did not want me to worry."
The Vintage Purse Museum found the December 1968 bankruptcy and liquidation newspaper announcement for "Ingber Inc., Ladies' Handbag Manufacturer - to be sold on the premises at public auction."
Despite closing after seven decades, weathering two world wars and various economic challenges, we can say with confidence that the Ingber company produced handbags that are treasured by today's collectors and vintage fashion aficionados.
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Green fur muff bag and clutch by Ingber, circa 1959. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 27 Sep 1959, Sun The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana) Newspapers.com |
This article c2025 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to Rick Ingber and the Ingber family. Resources used were Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. We also used the website of The Bag Lady, Familysearch.org, Google, Norwayheritage.com, and the Los Angeles Public Library database/Proquest. Please do not use any photos or information from this article or other posts on our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.
11 Jan 1954, Mon The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
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