Passed
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Description
15" (38 cm.) x 13" x 13". Seated upon a wooden platform with tapestry carpet is a bisque-head doll with blue glass eyes,mohair lashes,open mouth,porcelain teeth,blonde mohair wig,carton torso and lower legs,and bisque arms. She is wearing her original aqua silk dress with lace collar and hem trimmed with silver beads,matching bonnet,and is holding a little all-bisque doll in matching costume in her left hand,while in her right hand she holds a rattle. Arranged around her are toys comprising another all-bisque doll seated on a nodding-head donkey,and a carved bone ball and cup game. Movement and Music. The doll looks to the left and leans forward,blinking her eyes,and lifting her little doll several times as though in play. She sits back,nodding back and forth in contemplation of what to play next,and then lifts her right hand to shake the rattle. Her right foot kicks up and down in delight. Music plays.Leopold Lambert,Paris,circa 1895,with original bisque head marked "S.H. 1039". The model was actually deposed by Lambert in 1894 as "mechanical bebe doll". A departure from his standard line of exquisitely costumed standing bebes with two or three simples motions,it was actually quite complicated. His aim was to show the child in a realistic play situation. In his patent application he provided an endearing description of his design process. "I placed a child on the floor and surrounded him with his toys. I took careful note of the movements made by the child and I have managed to imitate the entire range of these movements". In both his written description and in the accompanying illustration,Lambert referred to "him",yet every example every found of the model has portrayed a girl child at play. The present example has original rare red paper label "L.B. Brevet Paris",and paper tune label indicating the song Petit Paysanne.