The face of Bébé Triste is instantly recognizable. Emile Jumeau, himself, described the model as unique, and while his other bébés were an evolution of one model to another with simple modification changes such as eye cuts or painting style of complexion and features, this doll stands alone. Too, in another way, it varies, and that is in the limited number of sizes in which it was made — size 9 to size 16 only. Why, one wonders? The answer is simple. This was the first model which only used paperweight eyes rather than the earlier spiral-threaded eyes. Although first introduced in 1878/9, paperweight eyes were only made for larger sizes bébés (9-16) until 1885/6; hence the Bébé Triste was only made in those sizes.
The Deposed Bébé Models – With Dainty Small or Splendid Grand Eyes During the first four years of bébé production, 1877-1880, Jumeau paid little attention to identifying the bisque heads of his bébés, although their bodies bore his name beginning with his winning of the Medaille d’Or at the 1878 International Exposition in Paris. Things changed in 1881 when Jumeau introduced the bébé whose head was incised E.J., although that model was still not “deposed”, i.e. registered in the courts. Finally, in 1884 Jumeau determined that the design of the bébé head was an important asset and, yes, it should be registered which he subsequently did and maintained until the end of the century. During the years 1884-1885 bébés with the mark “Depose Jumeau” cut into the bisque, with distinctive smaller eye cuts, as well as those incised “E. Depose J.” with dramatically large eye cuts, were made. It was for these latter dolls that Huguette Clark had a particular fondness, their being more than 20 examples from petite size 2 to splendid and rare size 14 in her collection.
#186. The bébé with rare incised “Depose Jumeau” mark made for one or two years only.
Bébé “Tete” – The Gold Standard Finally, in 1886, Emile Jumeau introduced the bébé marked with the red stamp “Depose Tete Jumeau” which continued to be made until the end of the century. Because of the 13-year period of its production, the model was made with many variations in quality, and it takes the canny eye of a wise collector to spot the rare and luxury early examples. Huguette Clark had this prescient eye. For example, it is noted in The Jumeau Book that “eye shadow blush is the exception rather than the rule” for the tete model, yet the tete models of the Clark Collection nearly all have the desirable eye shadow blush, suggesting that she must have carefully sought for this artistic feature in the dolls she chose. Too, many of her tete model bébés have the shy-appearing small eye cuts found on the earlier incised “Depose Jumeau” model, indicating that they were a rare and desirable transitional early bébé. Although, separately-applied ears did occur on larger sizes of the tete model, Huguette Clark managed to find examples with applied ears on smaller sizes, another example of luxury detail. The eye of the artist, indeed!
#16. An example of the artful eye of Huguette Clark. The 1886 transitional bébé is marked “tete Jumeau” with a red stamp yet still retains blushed eye shadow, applied ears and straight wrist of earlier models.
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