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Fashion dools ≈ the first models

The favourite modiste of French Queen Marie Antoinette used to say ╚Everything old is new again╩. Interestingly, in the Roman Empire small painted clay statuettes were often sent to the distant provinces as fashion models. However, historians and experts believe that the so-called ╚fashion dolls╩ first appeared in France. They were used to demonstrate the wide public the latest fashion trends of the age.

First ╚fashion dolls╩ were introduced in France. They served as models demonstrating fashion trends of the age, as their costumes as a rule thoroughly reproduced existed dresses that were in vogue among the elite. Thus, they successfully substituted fashion magazines that appeared much later. In XIVth century, English Queens used to send off ambassadors to Paris in order to get such dolls. Henry IV of France (1553√1610) married Marie de Mйdicis, he sent her several fashion dolls dressed in sumptuous clothes in order to demonstrate his future wife the luxury and opulence of the French court.

Pandora▓s Secrets

Fashion doll by Gaultier. France. Late XIXth century. Photo by Grigory Talalay [zoom (47k)]

Since prehistoric times there has been a desire for playthings which resemble human form. Although there are no complete dolls remaining from prehistoric times, fragments from Babylonian times have been discovered. Egyptian finds have included pottery dolls from the tombs. These would have been cherished possessions and would probably have thought to accompany their owner to the after life. Greek and Roman dolls would have been dedicated to Goddesses when their owners had out-grown them.

Eventually, as early as 600BC, dolls would be made that would have movable limbs and garments. Europe became a major source for doll production with dolls made primarily of wood. 16th and 17th Century England produced primitive wooden stump dolls. It is extremely rare to find these dolls today. In the Grodnertal area of Germany many skittle type peg dolls were made. Another popular medium of the 17th and 18th Century was the wax doll.

Cloth dolls or rag dolls have been made by mothers for centuries but began their commercial life in the 1850▓s. These were more ╚dispensible╩ than their more expensive bisque counterparts so it is rare to find really old ones in good condition.

Eventually a new medium was introduced, that of Composition. This is a mixture of wood and paper and was used to make dolls heads and bodies. Papier-mache was also used. This was a type of composition and one of the most popular mixtures.

The 19th Century saw the beginning of Porcelain. This term is also used for china and bisque dolls. China was popular for dolls heads in Germany, France, and Denmark during the 1840s. These were later replaced with bisque heads in the 1860s. Today one of the most collectible dolls is the French ╚bebe╩ which was popular in the 1880s. These were the first dolls to depict a child . Germany soon took the trend and produced cheaper dolls, which were also very popular as they were more affordable. However, they lacked the artistry of the French Dolls.

In America, dollmaking became an industry in the after the Civil War in the 1860s. This was based primarily in New England. They were made from a variety of materials such as leather, rubber, papier-mache, and cloth.

New Jersey of the 1860▓s saw the birth of celluloid. This was used manufacture dolls until the mid-1950s. There was a mass quantity supplied from French, German, American and Japanese factories but it had a tendency to be highly flammable and was prone to fading.

╚Golden╩ Eighteenth Century

Jumeau fashion doll. Late XIXth century. Photo by Grigory Talalay [zoom (73k)]

The Sociйtй Franзaise de Fabrication de Bйbйs et Jouets▓ (often referred to by its initials. S.F.B.J.) was a large doll making consortium founded in France by the union of a number of major French doll companies including Jumeau and Bru and the Franco-German doll company Fleischmann and Bloedel in 1899. The company went out of business in the late 1950s.

The S.F.B.J. made dolls in France and also assembled dolls with both French and German sourced parts. By the 1920s, it is generally believed that production was centred in France. While the S.F.B.J. may have always struggled with German doll makers for the lucrative United States toy trade, it claimed to sell well in France, the French colonies, South American and Australian markets. Its dolls were made of many materials including bisque (porcelain) composition and early plastics ≈ in the later years of the firm. The S.F.B.J made dolls from fine to cheap qualities and also had a large, well-equipped dressmaking branch. There were many different moulds including character dolls modelled after real children and dolls designed by French artists. S.F.B.J. dolls were used for tourist souvenirs as well as children▓s toys. The popular Bleuette dolls were one of its most high profiled products.

The Jumeau company first emerged as a partnership between Louis╛Desire Belton and Pierre-Francois Jumeau in Paris, 1841. By 1845 Pierre Francois Jumeau was trading in his own right. Although the Jumeau firm rapidly won commendation, including medals at international exhibitions for the outstanding qualities of the dresses in which their dolls were presented, very few Jumeau dolls can be securely identified dating before the 1870s. In 1872 the company began to produce its own porcelain heads, which they also supplied to other dollmakers. By 1877 the first Bйbйs (or dolls in the image of a little girl) were produced. In 1878 the Jumeau company won the unprecedented honour of the Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle (1878). The award was proudly advertised on the bodies, boxes, shoes and even the dress labels of the dolls. Jumeau won a number of other high awards including the prizes for the best dollmaker at both the Sydney International Exhibition (1879) and Melbourne International Exhibition (1880) in Australia. The ╚Golden Age╩ of the Jumeau factory lasted for two decades from the late 1870s to the late 1890s, when the competition from German dolls sent the firm into financial difficulties. The Jumeau dolls from the later 1890s are of more variable quality. German dolls in the 1890s were cheaper than the French, but still well made and much loved by little girls, even if they were by no means as elegant or graceful in face or costume as the best Jumeau dolls. The Jumeau company became part of the French conglomerate the Sociйtй Franзaise de Fabrication de Bйbйs et Jouets. The S.F.B.J. still continued to use the Bйbй Jumeau trademark throughout the 20th century, even producing dolls in the manner of Jumeau.

Bleuette is a doll that was produced from 1905 to 1960 in France that was only available to readers of the girls▓ magazine La Semaine de Suzette, or ╚Suzette▓s Week╩.

The magazine came out weekly and included patterns for the doll. More than 1,060 patterns were published over the 55 years Bleuette was available.

Jumeau fashion doll. France. Late XIX century. Photo by Grigory Talalay [zoom (56k)]

The first Bleuette dolls are known as ╚Premiere Bleuette╩, and were given free to those who had placed an order for a year▓s subscription to La Semaine de Suzette before its first publication in February 1905, and were only available until one month after the first issue. 20,000 Jumeau Dolls were ordered from the Sociйtй Franзaise de Fabrication de Bйbйs et Jouets (SFBJ) for the initial advertisement, but 60,000 subscriptions were received, and this first supply of dolls were gone before the first issue was even released.

Bleuette has a fully jointed composition body. She was 27 cm until 1933, then 29 cm) until production ended in 1960. She had a bisque head until World War II, then a composition head until 1958 when a hard plastic body and head was used for the last two years of production.

History of Franзois Gaultiеr

Francois Gaultier started making dolls heads and dresses around 1860. He also made dolls limbs and all-bisque dolls and was an extremely high quality doll maker having won the silver medal at the Paris Exposition in 1887 and the bronze medal at the Brussels Exihibition in 1880. In 1884 the company became Gaultier and Son (Gaultier et Fils) then later Gaultier Brothers (Gaultier et Freres) in 1888.

Gaultier dolls are extremely well decorated and made in fine bisque. Many of these dolls heads were supplied to dolls makers such as Vichy, Thuiller and Petit et Dumontier. Gaultier dolls often look very precocious. Their bodies can be wood, composition or Gesland.

In 1899 Gaultier joined the SFBJ.