Tur audio Permanent collections - room 1 - The XIXth Century

Doll has been one of the most constant representation of Men since the begining of times. Many civilisation have created dolls that have had various functions throught times: from fetich to divinatory, from fashion model to decorative object, from tourist souvenir to children toy. The XIXth Century has been the period when the Occidental civilisation has produced the most beautiful dolls made for children play and education. It is during that golden age that today’s most collectible dolls have been made.

Among dolls here are examples carved from wood, other molded in pasteboard, "empeaussées dolls" from Louis- Philippe era, fashion dolls that were made during the Second Empire, original miniature pocket dolls plus the first bathing babies or the wax dolls that Countess de Segur described so well in Les Malheurs de Sophie. Every type of doll from the first three quarters of the nineteenth century can be found in this room.

This space reveals the golden age of the bisque head bébé. Prestigious French firms, such as Jumeau, Bru, Steiner, Gaultier dominated the last quarter of the nineteenth century by exporting their production worldwide are presented as well as the ones that dominated this industrial and craft sector in Germany : Simon & Halbig, Kestner, Kämmer & Reinhardt, Kuhnlenz and Bähr & Pröschild.