$30,000
Sold
sold
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Description
12" (30 cm.) Pressed bisque swivel head on kid-edged bisque shoulder plate with modeled
bosom and shoulder blades,brown glass enamel inset eyes,dark eyeliner,painted
lashes,brush-stroked and multi-feathered brows,accented eye corners,shaded nostrils of
upturned softly rounded nose,closed mouth with suggestion of tiny stuck-out tongue
tip,outlined lips,slender kid bebe body with gusset-jointing at hips and knees,kid collarette at
upper torso,kid over wooden upper arms,bisque forearms with sculpted bisque fingers.
Condition: generally excellent. Marks: Bru Jne 2 (head and shoulder plate). Comments: Leon
Casimir Bru,circa 1885,included with the doll are a doll trunk and additional costume. Value
Points: exceptional pristine condition of the petite bebe with beautiful and perfect bisque
head,shoulders and hands,very sturdy body,wearing antique first communion dress and
veil,carrying antique rosary,leather shoes signed Bru Jne. The doll was purchased in Paris in
the mid-1880s for young Genevieve Clarke of St. Joseph,Missouri,and a note included with
the doll states "A French doll...she lived her early life in the City of Paris; her address 56
avenue Malakof,not far from Place de l'Etoile where with her Maman she witnessed the
passage of the first automobile ever seen in Europe - the year was 1888". Also included with
the doll is an 1892 photograph of the original owner,Genevieve Clarke,taken in Paris at 1892
when she "received her First Holy Communion from the hand of Pope Leo 13th". The
photograph shows his cap which he presented to Genevieve after she presented him with a
new one which she had made for him. Genevieve Clarke became a nun,eventually Mother
Genevieve Clarke,librarian at the San Diego College for Women,where she displayed her doll
and its trunk in the Museum of Americana at that college until 1970; the doll has remained in
the Conrad family until now.