Size 9 Tete Jumeau Bebe "Violet" with Wardrobe

Description:

Size 9 Tete Jumeau Bebe "Violet" with Wardrobe, stamped in red Depose Tete Jumeau, Bte. S.G.D.G. 9, with accented closed mouth, large fixed brown paperweight eyes, arched multi-stroke brows, pierced ears, original chestnut mohair wig on cork pate, and jointed composition body with blue Jumeau stamp on back, Kestner lower legs, ht. 21 1/2 in., (bisque very slightly grainy, some small wig pulls at crown, wig probably never removed).
Wardrobe: cherry red striped satin dress, white lace bodice, sleeve and neck detail, cherry ribbon sash and matching ribbon rosettes, with label Au Paradis des Enfants, 156 Rue de Rivoli, Paris; red fine wool dress with cream silk faille bodice insert and epaulets, sash, neck and skirt trimmed with narrow black velvet banding; red sprigged red cotton sundress with red feather stitch accents; long-sleeved light-blue cotton high-waisted dress with Hamburg laced bodice inserts and cuffs; long-sleeves light-blue fine wool dress with satin tucked bodice front, matching attached sash and white lace neck detail; long-sleeved white lawn night dress with pintucked bodice, lace trimmed neck and sleeves; fine white wool cape with pink silk-lined hood; white cotton chemise, draws and petticoat; two pairs of stockings, red and black; two pairs of socks, cream and white; pair of light-blue French kid boots, stamped Paris Depose below castle trademark; pair of French brown leather shoes with rosettes, stamped C.M.; natural straw hat with ecru lace-trimmed crown and red silk ribbon rosettes matching her principal dress; white cotton Hamburg lace bonnet; white lace and light-blue ribbon bonnet; lace parasol with accompanying period handwritten notes identifying this, and the blue shoes, as Violet's.
Provenance: Violet and the following eight lots were the childhood dolls of Mabel Lillian Hyde, born c. 1882 at 20 West 53 St. in New York City, the youngest of seven children born to Ida Josephine Sexton Hyde and Dr. Frederich Erastus Hyde. The family traveled extensively in Europe and further a field; a contemporary photograph (not included in the lot) shows the family riding elephants in India; Mabel Lillian is the young woman on the left elephant sitting behind her sister. The dolls were presumably purchased during a family trip to Paris, perhaps from the fashionable toy shop, Aux Paradix de Enfants, in the Rue de Rivoli, whose labels are found in two of the dresses. An assortment of the costumes are commercial, while others appear to have been made by the family dressmaker in America. The three Jumeau dolls would have been purchased for Mabel Lillian and two of her sisters, and great care was taken in the proper furnishing of their wardrobes and accessories. Two of the dolls wear matching shoes, and three have matching rosette-trimmed lace bonnets and silk-lined hooded capes. It is tempting to speculate that they were dressed in miniature versions of the sisters' own dresses. Mabel Lillian Hyde spent her later years in New Canaan, Connecticut, where she died in 1958. Sometime, presumably towards the end of the 19th century, the dolls were packed away in tissue paper and stored in a steamer trunk purchased in New York, where they remained, still in their wrapping, until they were discovered earlier this year at the family house in Maine.
Estimate $3,000-4,000

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