Jumeau Porcelain

 

Porcelain Dolls are made of almost the same material as porcelain teacups .
They are usually formed in a mold and baked as separate items fo the body,
head,arms and legs.
Once they have been fired they are painted in flesh tints and the eye,lips and eyebrows are painted and the
doll parts are assembled and a wig and clothes are added.
Why make a doll from China/porcelain ?
The answer is simple porcelain has been double fired and is much stronger than bisque.
The end result is not quite as attractive but most doll makers sub contracted the actual assembly of their dolls
to home workers and by using porcelain instead of Bisue there were practically no breakages.
(remember that a large proportion of dolls were assembled by using child labour )

Porcelain gave a pleasing finish still to the doll and was accordingly cheaper to make.
Sometimes by using molded heads, the artist painting the heads would paint the hair thus saving another process.
Some makers even ended up paintng the stockings of the doll.

In an effort to make the doll even more lifelike, glass eyes were also added.

 

Jumeau Porcelain dolls are some of Jumeas finest work and are very collectabel.

The main rivals for Jumeau were Bru (preferred by many collectors) and Kestner who produced good quality dolls but at a lower price.

 

 

More Jumeau Dolls