No. 35

Simon & Halbig 1079 DEP

German Antique Bisque Doll (original)

Details

Maker

Simon & Halbig (Grafenhain, Thuringia, Germany)

Mold

No. 1079

Mark

S & H 1079 DEP

Period

c. 1892-1900

Height

68 cm (approx. 27 in.)

Features

Bisque socket head, glass eyes, jointed composition body

About this doll

A 68 cm antique doll in a pale blue dress with a white lace front and ribbons, with brown curls and blue eyes. She is an original bisque doll from Simon & Halbig's celebrated mold 1079, with a bisque socket head, glass eyes and a jointed composition body.

The back of the neck is incised 'S & H 1079 DEP' with the size number. DEP indicates a registered design and was used on German and French dolls from the 1880s onward.

Background

Simon & Halbig was a porcelain company founded in 1869 in Grafenhain, Thuringia, by Wilhelm Simon and Carl Halbig, and began making doll heads in 1875. Famed for its fine sculpting, delicate painting and clear bisque, it was regarded as the best head maker in Germany and supplied heads not only to German firms such as Kammer & Reinhardt, Handwerck, Bergmann and Dressel but also to Jumeau and SFBJ in France and to American importers.

Mold 1079, believed to date from the early 1890s, is a dolly-face socket head whose typical features are weighted glass sleep eyes, an open mouth showing four porcelain teeth, feathered brows and pierced ears. The company was bought by Kammer & Reinhardt in 1920, and the name remained in use until the mid-1930s.

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