Collecting French Jumeau Dolls
Jumeau Dolls hold a supreme place among French antique dolls. They were celebrated around the world for their beautiful faces and exquisite fashionable late nineteenth century coutourier dresses. Long before the emergence of modern toy conglomerates, Emil-Louis Jumeau adapted new methods of marketing, advertising and industrial production to the creation of dolls, and Jumeau dolls were world renowned in the late 19th century for their quality production and their grace and elegance.
The Jumeau company first emerged as a partnership between Louis-Desire Belton and Pierre-Francois Jumeau in 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 Bebes (or dolls in the image of a little girl) were produced. In 1878 the Jumeau company won the honor of the Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition. 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. 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 company became part of the French conglomerate the Societe Francaise de Fabrication des Bebes et Jouets. The S.F.B.J. still continued to use the Bebe Jumeau trademark throughout the 20th century, even producing dolls in the manner of Jumeau, although for purists these later dolls never matched the appeal of a “real” Bebe Jumeau. The most lovely of these later Bebe Jumeaus often bear a mould number “1907″ inscribed on the back of their head which indicates that they were made after the 1899 amalgamation of with the S.F.B.J.
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Jumeau antique dolls are coveted the world over. Jumeau bebes (child dolls) are known for their expressive eyes and beautiful bisque, and Jumeau French Fashion dolls are the perfect expression of their time and place. Jumeau dolls can sell for many thousands of dollars today, and demand for the dolls is quite high. The dolls were made in the second half of the 19th century during the heyday of French dollmaking by two generations of the Jumeau family.
In the early years Jumeau dolls were made of paper mache and then porcelain (commonly called china). These dolls are nearly impossible to identify as being from the Jumeau firm today, since they are almost all unmarked. Starting in the 1860s, production moved to bisque doll heads (unglazed bisque) and most known Jumeau dolls were made of this. French fashion dolls tend to have kid bodies, although some have wood or cloth, and bisque dolls generally have composition bodies.
Although the French Fashion dolls made by Jumeau are beautiful, it is the bebes by this firm that are more widely known. Made from the late 1870s when bebe dolls became the preferred doll of children everywhere, the dolls were made by Jumeau until they became part of SFBJ. The bebe dolls have bisque heads, paperweight glass eyes, exaggerated eyebrows and beautiful bisque. Most had closed mouths until the 1890s. The French bebe, and Jumeau, met their demise due to cheaper German production.
The rarest Jumeau french fashion dolls and bebes and those that have their original costumes and mint bodies continue to climb in price. More common dolls, including later open-mouth bebes and later french fashion dolls with cloth or simple kid bodies and common faces have had their prices stabilized in the last few years. However, expect to pay several thousand dollars for nearly any close-mouth bebe in excellent condition (collectors seem to prefer close-mouth antique bisque dolls to open-mouth ones). Jumeaus produced at the beginning of SFBJ production including those marked 1907 can be found for under $2,000. Some of the priciest Jumeau dolls include the early Portrait bisque bebe dolls which can easily be worth $20,000 to $30,000, and portrait-faced Jumeau poupees on wood bodies, which can be worth $10,000 to $20,000.
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