© Kathy Duncan, 2021
I am far from an expert on Jumeau dolls. However, I find it very interesting to read period pieces on the manufacturing of early dolls.
Just prior to the publication of this piece, the Jumeau dolls had received a Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle, the second world's fair held in Paris from April 1 to November 3, 1867. Their award that year no doubt sparked the publication of this piece which was lifted in part, with the paragraphs rearranged, from Mr. Bartley's Reports on Toys in the Paris Universal Exhibition 1867 Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. The focus on this English report of Jumeau's fashion dolls was that their elaborate dress made them unsuitable as playthings. There also seems to be some English indignation that the French dolls had won awards as dolls when their role as toys was secondary to their role as fashion plates although Bartley concedes that the heads are better and more unique than a simple china head.
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| Commercial Bulletin Boston, MA Saturday 23 November 1867 |
Transcript:
Doll Making in Paris
"The manufacture of dolls is a very interesting process, though difficult to witness, owing to the various portions being generally carried on in different places. M. Jumeau, at 8 Rue d'Anjou au Marais, is one of the largest makers in Paris. He employs many hands, the greatest number being women, who are scattered in all parts of the city. The heads of his dolls are porcelain, and most of the bodies of sheepskin, stuffed with sawdust, except the hands, in which iron fittings are inserted, to enable the fingers to be moved easily. The process of cutting the leather is peculiar, being done by hand, with an iron stamp set in boxwood. The stamps, of course, vary in size, and several of different shapes are required for each doll.
When the leather is cut, the next process is to sew the parts together: this requires a regular apprenticeship, more peculiarly for the fingers, which need great care; after the various parts are sewn up, the body has to be stuffed and the limbs attached. The doll is then ready to receive its head; the manufacture of this part is totally distinct, and similar to that of ordinary porcelain. Cheap china heads and shoulders are all in one piece, and their eyes are simply painted; while the superior description are made separate from the neck and shoulder, to enable the head to move on a sort of joint, and glass eyes are inserted into the sockets left for this purpose. The last thing is the hair, and in this English makers excel the French. At this manufactory, owing to the heads being of china, the hair has to be put on as a wig, and cannot be inserted so naturally as in a wax head. Human hair is rarely, if ever, used in Paris, the general material being mohair for the best and a sort of fur for the cheaper style of doll.
The dolls, when completed, have to be dressed, and this process varies with the fashion; it would not do for a French doll to be behindhand in this respect. At M. Jumeau's establishment the same style is not used for more than a month. All the dolls' clothes are made on the premises, where a roomfull of young women is continually at work for these small fashionables. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the French doll manufacturers have an object in thus dressing up their dolls, which is more important than their use as toys. They are sent to India, and all parts of the world, to serve as types and models of the Paris fashions; for on arriving at these places their first use is to be studied by the dressmakers; and when useless to them in this respect, they descend to the children for toys. These two uses in which French dolls are thus subjected, though, perhaps, an economical commercial arrangement, are quite opposed for the production of a doll suitable for the hands of a child, and this accounts for the total unfitness of most of those expensive ones that were exhibited at the Exposition, and which figure in the shop windows on the Boulevards."
The following paragraphs, which were omitted from the newspaper version above, leave little doubt that Mr. Bartley found the Jumeau dolls in the exhibition lacking. Bartley does concede that the doll clothing manufactured by Juemeau are "good toys" and "popular."
Transcript:
M. Jumeau has not exhibited any of his mechanical dolls, saying "Mamma" and "Papa," and crying when laid down. These specimens are well worthy of a corner in the Exhibition. He also arranges the works, and dresses a large number of walking dolls, the patent for which is American, and for this reason he does not exhibit them."
