To many collectors the Jumeau doll represents the apex of the dollmarker’s art. Margaret Whitton, associate curator, dolls, at the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, has written after extensive research, this lavishly illustred handbook, the first volume ever exclusively devoted to the Jumeau. Here is the fascinating history, verbal and pictoral, of this famous antique.
The Jumeau doll was manufactured in factories near Paris for a century after 1842. Up to the end of the nineteenth century it was an unsurpassed model of luxury, grace, elegance, and mechanical invention. What’s more, it wore the finest French fashion created by true fashion designers. Rare today, a Jumeau in good condition and in its original clothes commands several thousand dollars at auction.