#french fashion doll
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.
welcome home Ophelie, the newest of our family!
she’s a Francois Gaultier fashion lady, probably from the 1880s if her princess petticoat is original (the arm holes look like a style from that era to me, and the combination chemise-petticoat first became a thing around 1877). she has a dress; I just feel like it’s massively tacky. it may be made of antique materials, but it’s this odd mustard yellow with pink trim
her body has some serious damage to the hands and the arms; the fingers are splitting along the seams and, in an attempt to tourniquet off the leaking sawdust, someone tied thread tightly around her wrists. so now her hands are all floppy on loose wrists devoid of stuffing. because someone couldn’t bother to just stabilize the splits
she also has a lot of cracks on her head, possibly from being dropped at some point, but they’ve been repaired
I couldn’t resist that sweet face, so here she is! ready for new hair and clothes and a new life
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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…
And thus, Lucie’s underwear is complete! She has her original petticoat so now all that’s lacking is outerwear. I’m going to wait on that until her wig is done, and her pate’s set to arrive on Monday so that should be the next step in the process.
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More progress shots! Lucie now has eyes and is stitched onto her body. Now if the wefts for her wig could just get through Customs Hell we’d be in business. As it is, hurry up and wait mode is activated and I’m working on her underwear in the meantime. I actually have patterns for 11-13″ poupees, so I don’t have to just drape and pray for a change.
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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
So I think the roughest of the rough diamonds has arrived.
Everyone, this is Lucie. She was once a size 0 Francois Gaultier fashion doll. She came to my workplace as half a head and a shoulder plate. My boss kept the plate since it was totally intact, but let me have Lucie.
A restoration artist friend is sending me instructions on how best to rebuild the rest of her head; I’ll buy some epoxy and get to work as soon as I can. After that, the struggle to piece together correct eyes, neck works, shoulder plate, and body begins.
Time has left her with barely enough substance to be named, but she’s still hanging on. And I’m going to bring her to life again.
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