#antique dolls

So I recently noticed a photo of Jeanette floating around online, mislabeled as a “bisque and wooden doll by DeHors, late 1860s.” Which could really play havoc with people’s research, so I’d like to set the record straight.

This:

is one of my French fashion dolls, nicknamed Jeanette. She has been attributed to Jumeau, not DeHors, and the early 1870s, not the late 1860s. She has a method of neck articulation patented by DeHors in 1867, which may be where the confusion came from, but her face is very typical of Jumeau’s fashion ladies. And to cap it all off, her body is of kid leather, not wood.

(I only wish I had any chance of affording- or someone buying me -a wood-bodied French fashion doll.)

This picture was on a post with clear information, and I’m really upset that someone’s been spreading it under the wrong maker name. And apparently without sourcing, since anyone who actually went to this blog could immediately see that the reposter was wrong about pretty much everything.

If you see anything else like this out there, please let me know.

Adelaide Calixte Huret (dates unknown)- Daughter of a manufacturer of wrought-iron furniture. First patented and sold her early “mode enfantine” (child fashion) dolls in 1850. Believed to be the parent of the French fashion doll.

Marie Antoinette Leontine Rohmer (??-1896)- Started out helping her mother, Catherine, in a successful Parisian child’s clothing shop (together with her sister Fanny). First began selling dolls in 1855.

Madame Lavallee-Peronne (first name unknown; dates unknown)- Opened her doll shop, A La Poupee de Nuremberg, in 1864. Also started and edited two magazines, La Poupee Modele (The Doll-Model) and Le Journal des Demoiselles (The Journal of Young Ladies).

Apolline-Marinette Comyn Bru (1837-???)- Married famed dollmaker Leon Casimir Bru in 1866. Her name is on the patents for several mechanisms her husband used in his dolls, suggesting that she in fact invented them. Her daughter, Lucie Bru Cousturier, was a writer, artist, and advocate for racial equality.

Ernestine-Stephanie Ducroix Jumeau (dates unknown)- Married doll heir Emile Jumeau in 1874; when he inherited the business upon the unexpected death of his older brother, she designed all the costumes for his famed Bebe Jumeau dolls, oversaw their construction, and made a number of them herself. Once said of the seamstresses she directed, “These women are saints.”

I just learned that and it’s

the most amazing thing?

on par with learning that her mother, Apolline-Marinette Comyn Bru (b. 1837 in Tours; married 1866), actually invented some of the mechanisms used in Bru dolls

and I feel like no devotees of Lucie Cousturier’s art and writing would ever think to link her to Bru dolls, nor any doll collectors think to look into the work of Bru’s daughter

this is so interesting

I’m not saying I bought another doll but

if I had

her name would be Ophélie and she would be a very battered F.G. fashion lady

this doll I totally didn’t buy on eBay in the first auction I’ve ever won

So I realize I haven’t done a proper full-body shot of Lucie in her new chemise and drawers, with her homemade wig, on her stand:

(big hair is back, remember?)

And we have a new sister in need of TLC to welcome to the family, too:

Meet Renata! She’s a Barrois straight-necked head with pretty intense but expert restoration. She came to me in a birthday box from some very generous friends and now sits wistfully awaiting the right body. Lucie’s came to me in under 6 months- can she hope for such luck? We’ll see…

think adults collecting dolls is a recent fad? think again. quite apart from the mid-20th century antique doll shows, with their now-ubiquitous blue ribbons for the grandest attic finds, women have been collecting dolls specifically made for them at least since the 17th century

fashionable Georgian ladies had to have ways to learn the latest fashions from France, the seat of style and taste. but human-sized samples of gowns and accessories were costly to make and difficult to transport. the solution came with a name: Pandora

two Pandoras, actually. for the woman of means, a petite Pandora for everyday clothes and a grand Pandora for formalwear were necessities. with inset glass eyes and real rooted hair (glued to a slit in the head), the wooden dolls weren’t just mannequins, they were art in their own right. gradually the custom of purchasing miniature fashion samples for one’s Pandoras and showing them to the seamstress died out, but Pandoras remained a popular display item for years afterwards

fast forward to the 1920s and you have the boudoir dolls. they were highly stylized, slender dolls with cloth-stuffed bodies and masklike painted faces- and they did not depict children. with thin, arched brows and deep red cupid’s bow lips, these dolls were flappers through and through. they were a fad and a decorative object, but also much more. movie stars were photographed with their boudoir dolls. some women brought them to parties. this trend caused some consternation among the male powers-that-were, who believed caring for dolls cooled women’s desire to care for children. one professor Max Schlapp wrote, “these exaggerated dolls are the temporary whim of abnormal women. I use the word advisedly, because women who are normal have children and have no time to waste on baubles.”

Mr. Schlapp was clearly allergic to fun

so the next time you see someone mocking a collector of ball-jointed dolls or art dolls, remember: “not intended for children” has a long, illustrious history. and grown-ass adults can do what we want

because a girl can dream, right?

• Wood-bodied French fashion doll (preferably by DeHors or a Lavallee-Perrone Lily)
• Queen Anne doll
• Grodnertal doll
• Schlaggenwald porcelain doll
• A doll by Marina Bychkova
• DollChateau Isabel
• Luts Vampire Dark Elf Soo
• Vichy gliding lady automaton
• An antique doll with a trousseau
• An antique doll with an extensive provenance

YESSSSS

So, I moved again.

It was a hard decision, mostly because of my job and the wonderful friends I’ve made through it. Whenever I was at work, I was in heaven. The problem is, those were the movie montage moments: fixing dolls or taking late night trips to the Chocolate Room with my friends. Life is never perfect anywhere, but I think a good gauge of happiness is how you feel between the movie moments- and I wasn’t happy. New York felt too glossy, too shiny, too busy propping up its glittering facade to care about anything else. And too isolating. I loved my friends, but we weren’t able to see each other often outside of work (understandable; they have their own lives). I missed trees and hills and semi-reasonable prices.

I got in touch with some college friends, packed away my darlings in a box marked DOLLS.FRAGILE. in the largest letters possible, and trucked up the coast to Boston. I went to college in Massachusetts like my sister before me and our parents love vacationing on Cape Ann, so I have a fair amount of history here. Besides the massive amount of general history here, which the city wears on its sleeve. I love it for that.

Everyone’s unpacked and returned to their Victorian parlor chair home, beaming like queens. Lucie and a wax girl named Clarabelle are on the proverbial workbench. I’m hunting around for day jobs and acting gigs. And, most exciting of all…I have my first consultation as a doll doctor sometime in the near future. 

Turns out fixing dolls is addictive.

I’m still working for my New York boss doing social media promos. That can be done long-distance, and I’m incredibly happy to stay with the business in some capacity. The dream is to get a doll hospital side gig going, or perhaps become a dealer myself. Who knows? One thing’s for sure, I’m not leaving the doll world without a fight.

Good-bye for now, New York. Hello, Boston. Give me your dolls.

RM is an anime about allegedly antique dolls fighting each other to the death for their maker’s regard. That’s the very condensed version of the plot and they’re all clearly meant to be modern Asian ball-jointed dolls (and all by the same maker), but in a hypothetical imaginary live-action adaptation with the dolls “played” by real European antiques, here’s how I imagine the characters.

Shinku: Bru bebe with Chevrot body

Suigintou:Jumeau fashion lady

Hinaichigo:Kammer and Reinhardt toddler

Suiseiseki and Souseiseki: Twin German dolls dressed as “brother” and sister