SPECIAL POST: The History of Dofan Handbags

Black leather Dofan handbag with its original box. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. More photos of this bag and box below.

The History of Dofan Handbags

Dofan is perhaps best known for its sophisticated French-made bags, primarily in black leather, although there are many examples of other styles, colors, and materials. The Dofan company was founded and managed by the four Grosz brothers, Armand (b. Armin, 1905-1983), Zoltan (1908-1995), Albert (b. Adalbert, 1910-d.?), and Emeric (1917-2007), born in Romania to Joseph and Theresa Grosz. The four brothers may have had a sister and one or two other siblings, and it is possible that at least one child was born in Hungary rather than Romania. Genealogy records are sometimes unclear or incorrect, and compounding the issue is that there were other Grosz families around this time whose relatives had the same or similar first names.

Exteriors and interiors of two different Dofan promotional matchbooks (shown unfolded), likely given away at fashion industry events or to wholesale clients. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

A 1959 French trade publication, France Actuelle, says that the four brothers were sons of a Hungarian furniture manufacturer, and that they moved to Paris as very young boys. A commemorative coin featuring the brothers' faces (not pictured here as we do not own it), with the years 1929 and 1959, indicates they started in the handbag business as early as 1929, but we could not verify this date. Another unverified document says the company started in 1939, which is feasible, but more than likely in France, and possibly under a different business name. 

The 1936 Paris Census shows that three of the brothers—Zoltan, Albert (Adalbert), and Emeric—were living together in Porte Saint-Denis. Their occupations are not listed, and it is unclear where the rest of the family was at that time. It is also unknown how they fared during WWII after the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940. 

However, we learned via a 1945 Canadian border crossing card (into Rouses Point, New York) that Armand and his wife and son had left Grenoble, France in July 1941, traveled to an unknown location (possibly Spain), and booked passage on the SS Villa de Madrid, arriving in New York. This voyage was particularly harrowing as 617 passengers, primarily Jewish war refugees, were crammed onto the ship, which was only meant to accommodate 225.

Armand and his family settled in Brooklyn, New York. Zoltan Grosz, his wife, and their three young children followed, somehow escaping to Cuba, and arriving in New York in September 26, 1941 on the SS Shawnee. Zoltan's occupation on the ship's manifest is listed as "manufactures (sic)."

We couldn't find ships' manifests or other documents showing that any of the brothers had fled to the US prior to the 1940s. This does not mean one (or more) of them wasn't in the US in the 1930s or earlier, or that they weren't already planning to expand their handbag operations to the US while still residents of France. We will update this article if we find further documentation.

From what we could tell by scouring industry documents and publications, Dofan’s postwar New York business was headed by Armand and Zoltan. The brothers' factories in France were run by Albert and Emeric.

The Vintage Purse Museum originally theorized that “Dofan,” was an Americanized or phonetic version of the word “dauphin,” which means “dolphin” in French, but we didn't know why this name was chosen. We then found an explanation in an article in a 1961 edition of Handbags and Fashion Accessories, a trade publication. Zoltan told the interviewer that Grenoble, where the Grosz brothers had their factory, is in the province of Dauphine. 

The French term Dauphin de France relates to the heir to the King of France from the 1300s to the 1800s, and dolphins appear on the Dauphin's coat of arms.

Photo collage of Dofan caramel-colored handbag with silvertone floral frame. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Photo collage of ruched white leather Dofan bag with the same frame as the previous bag, and silvertone studs in the handle. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

In 2022, we wrote an article about handbag maker Frank Milch, who’d trademarked the name “Dolphin Bag Co.” in the 1950s, but never used it. Upon researching our article about Dofan, we stumbled across an obscure reference to the Dofan company taking legal action against Mr. Milch for trademark infringement. This would explain why Mr. Milch didn’t pursue the creation of the Dolphin handbag brand.

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Dofan trademark, with its sketched calf logo, was first used in 1943, and the trademark application was filed in 1944 by Parisian Handbag Co. Inc. The trademark was officially registered in 1945, and it expired in 1986. (In 2016, a company in France tried to register the Dofan name, in the same font, without the calf logo, but the US application was dismissed.)

Dofan logo and trademark, screenshot from the USPTO.

We found a 1954 trial transcript of a dispute over an office building lease with a landlord, in which Zoltan Grosz was questioned as a witness. He explained that their name in 1942 was Parisian Handbag Co. Inc., but they’d always used Dofan as a trademark. He said, “In 1948 we found we don’t need a different corporate name and trademark, so we changed the corporate name to Dofan Handbag Co., Inc.”

At that time their building was on East 33rd St. in New York City, a very popular location for numerous midcentury bag makers. They had several addresses in New York and France over the years. Some of the addresses for their French counterparts were Societe Dofan (“Dofan Company”) at 3-5 Rue de Metz in Paris, and Maroquinerie Dauphinoise (“Leather Goods of Dauphine”), at 14 Rue de New York in Grenoble, France. 

Black patent Dofan bag pictured at the top of the page. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of goldtone embellishments on bag above.

Lid of the box that came with the above handbag. It is papered in a faux wood design, with the Dofan logo.

Style number, color, and material on the side of the box lid above.

The earliest US newspaper advertisement we could find for Dofan handbags was an advertorial that appeared in August 1945. This was after the Nazis were defeated in May of that year, and shortly before the official end of WWII. It was reported that Ivan Kessler (1898-1965) of Dofan handbags flew to Paris “on a bomber with the first mercantile passport issued.” It’s interesting to note that Mr. Kessler was employed by several other popular midcentury bag manufacturers during his lengthy career. We found references to him working not only for Parisian Handbag Co. (Dofan) for at least three years as sales manager, but also Nat Lewis, Bobbie Jerome, and Josef—three makers we’ve also written about for this website. 

August 17, 1945 Arizona Republic article about Ivan Kessler of Dofan bringing handbags back to the US. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

1945 industry showing of Dofan bags by sales rep Ivan Kessler. Note the mention of 1939, which could be a clue as to when Dofan or another company headed by the Grosz brothers was established, possibly in France. Screenshot from Fashion Calendar, a trade publication, via Internet Archive.

In 1950, Zoltan was listed in a trade directory as president of the company's US division, Armand was secretary/treasurer, and Robert E. Sommers was director of sales.

In 1953, Armand was knighted a Chevalier de L'ordre du Merite Commercial (Knight of the Order of Commercial Merit). In 1956, Zoltan participated in a ceremony at the French consulate in New York, where he received the Legion of Honor from Consulate General Jean de Lagarde (1908-1984).

We found a 1957 newspaper article (below) with a photo of Zoltan Grosz, vice president of the French Committee to Commemorate Lafayette, presenting an oil painting of General Lafayette to Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York. While we learned very little about the Grosz brothers' personal lives, that which we did uncover led to our belief that they still held very dear their adopted home country of France.

Sept. 22, 1957, the Buffalo Courier Express, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Zoltan Grosz had at least two US patents for handbag-related items, and Societe Dofan received French patents for a number of inventions. 

1947 patent for a handbag lock closure by inventor Zoltan Grosz, screenshot from Google Patents.

A list of some of Societe Dofan's French patents, screenshot from Google Patents.

One of The Vintage Purse Museum’s Dofan handbags has the “Jean Atkins” imprint. Jean Atkins was part of the Frederick Atkins family of brands, which included many different types of household and clothing items sold in numerous department stores from the early 1900s until its closure in 2000. Because of the volume of advertisements for certain Atkins products over a specific time frame, we believe our Dofan/Jean Atkins bag is from the late 1950s. (Jean Atkins was not a real person, a la Betty Crocker, but Frederick Atkins, 1861-1946, was. He established the original Atkins Mercantile Company in 1888.)

Jean Atkins by Dofan leather bag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Imprint inside bag above.

December 8, 1958, the Chicago Tribune, clipped via Newspapers.com

December 17, 1968, the Pittsburgh Gazette, clipped via Newspapers.com

While Dofan bags are stunning in their simplicity and elegance, this is also the reason they can be difficult to date. Some of their 1960s and 1970s designs are quite similar to Dofan bags of the 1950s. Note the resemblances in the sketches of the handbags in the two newspaper advertisements above, one from 1958, and the other from 1968.

A 1961 edition of the industry publication Leather and Shoes announced that Dofan had received a contract from the US Navy to manufacture 3,136 black calfskin handbags at $14.45 each, for women's military uniforms. 

In the 1960s, Dofan expanded operations to include an eponymous factory in Ethiopa, which, at that time, had a thriving crocodile trade. By 1972, the hunting of Ethiopian (Nile) crocodiles for their hides was prohibited due to the animals’ declining numbers.

A number of 1960s industry directories and related documentation show that Dofan was also manufacturing handbags of synthetic materials, specifically plastic.

Red plastic patent Dofan clutch. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Dofan imprint inside bag above.

In 1967, Armand and his son Bernard (1937-2018) trademarked the Bernele handbag line. Bernard had previously worked for Dofan, and later became an accomplished jewelry designer. It appears that Bernele ceased operations by about 1972.

A 1973 edition of Art Director & Studio News said that “An exotic mythical aura surrounds that old staple—women’s handbags—in Dofan’s campaign.” Because of copyright restrictions, we were unable to see the photo accompanying this snippet. Instead, we clipped a 1973 newspaper ad (directly below) with a line drawing of a woman, along with Trifari jewelry and a Dofan handbag.

April 8, 1973, The Daily Freeman, clipped via Newspapers.com.

As late as 1976, Dofan was a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. 1976 was also the date of the most recent Dofan US newspaper advertisement that we could find, although we saw that Dofan was listed in a 1978 directory of US importers. In 1979, a certificate of dissolution was issued for the business name, and Dofan was declared inactive by the New York Department of State Division of Corporations. 

There was a listing for Dofan Handbags Co. Inc. at 320 5th Ave. in the 1985 Directory of Foreign Manufacturers in the United States. It is unclear why the company's address was advertised in the mid-1980s, but we also found Dofan, a "plastic leather goods" manufacturer, run by Emeric Grosz, listed in 1985's French reference book Les Juifs dans la France d'aujourd'hui ("Jews in Contemporary France"). As we mentioned previously in this post, the Dofan trademark didn't run out until 1986. It could be that Dofan handbags closed its doors in the US in the 1970s, but Emeric, who lived in France and was the youngest Grosz brother, kept operations going in Europe for another decade. We did not have access to this entire book so we can't be sure.

In 2024, when we began researching this article, we reached out to a member of the Grosz family for an interview, but were unable to connect. Still, we hope that we gave our fellow vintage handbag aficionados a well-rounded picture of a successful midcentury maker whose designs remain timeless, stylish, and highly collectible.

This article c2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Please do not use photos or text from our blog or website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com. Resources used were MyHeritage.com and Newspapers.com, to which we have paid subcriptions. We also used Google, FamilySearch.org, and the Internet Archive.