French Bisque Bebe "Suzanne's Doll", Extensive Trousseau from Au Nain Bleu, Provenance
Lot #19
20" (51 cm.) Bisque socket head, blue glass sleep eyes, mohair lashes, painted lower lashes, brush-stroked and feathered brows, accented nostrils, open mouth, outlined lips, four porcelain teeth, pierced ears, blonde mohair wig over cork pate, French composition and wooden fully-jointed body. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: Dep 8 (incised on head, and red stamp Tete Jumeau, head) Au Nain Bleu E. Chauviere Boul des Capucines, 27, Paris (body). Comments: French, Jumeau/SFBJ, circa 1905. From the original property of Suzanne Waterman, one of five children of the Waterman family of Warren, Rhode Island, prosperous owners of a mill in that town. After her father's death at her age of 3, her mother remarried an Episcopal minister, Joseph Hutcheson, and the entire family traveled to France where the children were entered in school, and the couple traveled throughout France seeking a chateau to remove to America. They did, and the chateau was dismantled, packed and transported back to Rhode Island, occupying an entire ship. Upon its arrival in Rhode Island, the chateau was re-designed into the famed Villa Sera under the guidance of the famous architect, Charles Platt, noted for his insistence on integrating landscape into building design (www.beyondthegildedage.com/2012/02/villasera.html). Also brought back from France with the Waterman family was Suzanne's doll, purchased for her at the famed Parisian doll shop of Au Nain Bleu, along with the doll's original trunk and extensive trousseau; this doll was cherished by Suzanne throughout her entire life, and passed on to family members until its acquisition by Carolyn Guise in 1982 where it has remained until this present time. Value Points: wonderfully-preserved original-owner doll has fine original wig, body, body finish, and owns an extensive trousseau of dresses, coats, undergarments, hats, shoes, accessories, and more, each of the garments bearing the original cloth label of Au Nain Bleu, and most in impeccable condition; the trousseau is stored in its original doll trunk which also bears the label of Au Nain Bleu. In all, an extraordinary treasure of objects enhanced by a remarkable family story.
