Doll:French Fashion Doll

French fashion dolls evolved during their 30-year heyday, from 1850 to 1880. Manufacturers competed with each other to develop and patent innovations that made their dolls more durable, lifelike, and poseable. Today, collectors and doll historians use this evolution to date fashion dolls. Certain traits distinguish dolls from the early period, approximately 1850 to the early 1870s, from their later counterparts. This doll has many characteristics of the early French fashion dolls. The bisque of her head and shoulder plate is very pale, whereas later dolls had bisque that was slightly darker to give them a more realistic skin tone. Her head and shoulder plate are attached and her head is stationary, another attribute of early dolls. Later dolls often had swivel necks, allowing their heads to move from side to side. Finally, this doll's ears are not pierced; in the later period, dolls had pierced ears that could accommodate a variety of earrings.