Doll:French Fashion Doll

When collectors and historians examine French fashion dolls, they hope to find a manufacturer's mark. Some dolls bear markings associated with a particular doll maker, usually in the form of a label, surface printing, or a mark incised (a scoring of the wet clay body) into the bisque of the doll's head or shoulderplate. Few of these fashion dolls, however have their makers' marks. Many major manufacturers, including Huret, Rohmer, Jumeau, Bru, and Fernand Gaultier, did not mark their dolls until the last decades of the 19th century. Instead of initials or a name, doll makers sometimes inscribed dolls with numbers that corresponded to the doll's height. Experts have found that 17-inch dolls incised with the number "3", like this one, are often Gaultier creations.