No. 14

Emily Jumeau

French Antique Reproduction

Details

Original

Maison Jumeau (Paris)

About this doll

A doll dressed for a walk in a grey coat-dress with red piping, a checked vest and a pleated skirt, with a wine-colored ribboned hat, blonde curls and black shoes.

The collection record calls her 'Emily Jumeau'. This appears to refer to the 'E.J.' bebe, the signature Jumeau doll marked with the initials of Emile Jumeau; the exact mold name is being confirmed.

Background

Maison Jumeau was started in Paris in the early 1840s by Pierre-Francois Jumeau and by 1848 was already regarded as the foremost doll maker in France. It won a first-place medal at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and further prizes in Paris, Vienna and Melbourne, and in 1872 opened its own porcelain factory at Montreuil to fire its own bisque heads.

His son Emile Jumeau introduced the child-like 'bebe' in 1877 and opened the firm's golden age. Heads were incised 'E.J.' from 1881, replaced from 1886-87 by the red stamp 'Depose Tete Jumeau'. The E.J. bebe has a pressed-bisque head, paperweight glass eyes, a closed mouth and separately applied ears. Emile Jumeau was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1889, and the firm joined SFBJ in 1899.

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