No. 07

Armand Marseille 390

German Antique Bisque Doll (original)

Details

Maker

Armand Marseille (Koppelsdorf, Thuringia, Germany)

Mold

No. 390

Period

c. 1905-1920

Height

about 48 cm

Type

Bisque head doll, original antique (clothing is reproduction)

About this doll

A doll with blonde curls in a pale blue net dress. The sleeves and front panel are finished in white lace with embroidery, and her blue eyes and rosy cheeks give her a childlike charm.

She is an original antique made from mold 390 by Armand Marseille of Germany, dating from about 1905-1920. Mold 390 was the company's most-produced mold: a classic 'dolly face' girl with a socket head on a jointed composition body.

Background

Mold 390 was mass-produced for decades, from about 1900 into the 1930s, and is today the German antique doll a collector is most likely to meet. The back of the neck reads 'Armand Marseille / Germany / 390 / A (size) M', and glass sleep eyes, an open mouth showing teeth and a mohair wig are the standard features. Unlike the company's 370, a shoulder head for kid bodies, the 390 is a socket head that fits into a composition body.

Armand Marseille was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1856, moved to Germany in the 1860s and in 1885 bought a porcelain factory in Koppelsdorf, Thuringia, where he began making doll heads. At its peak the factory produced about 1,000 heads a day, one of the largest in the world; it merged with Ernst Heubach in 1919, separated in 1932 and soon closed. Seen beside No. 2 (mold 1894), this doll shows two faces from the same company in different periods.

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