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. Even when a doll is marked, the manufacturer may not always be apparent. This doll has many of the attributes of a marked L. D. doll, including a characteristic indentation at the edge of the neck and shoulder plate. However, there were several registered doll makers with the initials L. D. in Paris between 1860 and 1910, and experts agree that it is impossible to know for sure which of them was responsible for the marked L. D. dolls.