![Jumeau07a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Jumeau07a.jpg)
Jumeau was a French company, founded in the early 1840s, which designed and manufactured high quality
bisque doll
A bisque doll or porcelain doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of bisque or biscuit porcelain. Bisque dolls are characterized by their realistic, skin-like matte finish. They had their peak of popularity between 1860 and 1900 with French ...
s.
It was founded by Louis-Desire Belton and
Pierre-François Jumeau
Pierre-François Jumeau (31 October 1811 Rémalard – 13 August 1895 :fr:Boulevard Beaumarchais, Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris), was the founder of Jumeau. Jumeau was an 1840s French firm that produced bisque dolls and china dolls. His second son ...
in the Maison Jumeau of
Montreuil-sous-Bois
Montreuil (), sometimes unofficially referred to as Montreuil-sous-Bois (), is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis. With a population of 109,914 as of 2018, Montreuil is ...
, near Paris, France. While Belton did not remain with the company for long, under Jumeau's leadership (and later, under the leadership of his son, Emile), the company soon gained a reputation for dolls with beautiful faces and "exquisite" clothing which replicated the popular fashions of the time.
[Hoban (2008), p. 12.] The dolls are still popular with collectors today, and have sold for over £2,000 at auction.
[''"Rare French Doll Sells for Amazing Pounds 2,250"'' (2005).]
History
The Jumeau company first emerged as a partnership between Louis-Desire Belton and
Pierre-François Jumeau
Pierre-François Jumeau (31 October 1811 Rémalard – 13 August 1895 :fr:Boulevard Beaumarchais, Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris), was the founder of Jumeau. Jumeau was an 1840s French firm that produced bisque dolls and china dolls. His second son ...
in Paris in the early 1840s.
[The exact date varies on the source, but 1842 (Whitton, 1980, p. 5) and 1843 (Hoban, 2008, p. 12) are both mentioned in the literature.]
In 1844, Belton and Jumeau presented their dolls at the
Paris Exposition (at which they received an honorable mention), but, by 1846, Belton's name was no longer associated with the dolls, and Jumeau was trading in his own right.
[Whitton (1980), p. 5.]
A bronze medal in the
1849 Paris Exposition followed, as did an appearance at the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
in London in 1851, at which the company was awarded a First Place Medal.
Through much of this period, the firm sold only their own dolls to wholesalers, although during the 1850s and 1860s, the company moved into selling wax dolls imported from
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
.
[Peers (2004), p. 51.]
At the Paris expositions and the Great Exhibition in London, Jumeau dolls received their commendations due largely to the quality of the clothing, and no special significance was attached to the dolls themselves. This changed in 1867, when at the
Exposition Universelle of that year, the company was awarded a silver medal, and "special mention was made of the doll's heads".
1867 was also the year that Pierre-François' son, Emile Jumeau, joined the company.
[Markel (2000), p. 18.] By 1873, when they were awarded a gold medal at the
Vienna Exposition
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,
the company was producing their own
bisque doll
A bisque doll or porcelain doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of bisque or biscuit porcelain. Bisque dolls are characterized by their realistic, skin-like matte finish. They had their peak of popularity between 1860 and 1900 with French ...
s in their factory in
Montreuil.
![Jumeau05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Jumeau05.jpg)
Although the Jumeau firm had won commendations, very few Jumeau dolls can be securely identified dating before the 1870s. However, by 1877 Emile Jumeau had produced the first Bébés (i.e. dolls in the image of a little girl). With realistic glass eyes and "stylish fashions" produced by costumiers, thousands of Bébé dolls were produced for an international market.
In 1878, the Jumeau company won a gold medal at the
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War.
Construction
The buildings and the fairgroun ...
. 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 including the prizes for the best
doll
A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...
maker at both the
Sydney International Exhibition (1879) and
Melbourne International Exhibition (1880)
The Melbourne International Exhibition is the eighth World's fair officially recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and the first official World's Fair in the Southern Hemisphere.
Preparations
After being granted self-go ...
in Australia. The dolls were internationally sought after as luxury items and status symbols. The firm also was regarded as an industrial success, with production figures of over three million dolls annually by the mid-1890s.
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 dolls from the later 1890s are of more variable quality. German dolls in the 1890s were cheaper than the French, but still well-made and much loved by little girls, even if they were by no means as elegant or graceful in face or costume as the best Jumeau dolls. The Jumeau company became part of the French conglomerate the
Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets
The Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets ("French Concern for Manufacturing Dolls and Toys" often referred to by its initials. S.F.B.J.) was a large doll making consortium founded in France by the union of a number of major Fren ...
. The S.F.B.J. still continued to use the Bébé Jumeau trademark throughout the 20th century, even producing dolls in the manner of Jumeau.
Footnotes
References
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{{Dolls
Doll brands
Doll manufacturing companies