18" (46 cm.) Pressed bisque swivel head with very full cheeks and strong throat, on kid-edged bisque shoulder plate with modeled bosom and shoulder-blades, amber brown glass enamel inset eyes with spiral threading, thick dark eye-liner encircles the eye sockets, painted lashes, rose blushed eye shadow, delicately feathered brows, accented eye corners and nostrils, open mouth with shaded and accented lips, porcelain tongue inside the head set in framework allowing the long tongue to be "stuck out" to receive biscuit and then tip backward as though swallowing, firmly stuffed bebe torso and upper legs, kid upper arms, bisque forearms with exquisitely sculpted hands, bisque lower legs from above the knee, bisque feet with open soles. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: (circle/dot symbol on head) Bte SGDG (forehead) 1 T (right shoulder) (original paper label on torso). Comments: Leon Casimir Bru, his Bebe Gourmand, first advertised by Bru in 1882 as "delicieux bebe a surprise"; although he described the bebe as a registered model no record of its depose has been found. The bebe has two hollow tubes hidden inside the torso, and when a tiny biscuit is placed on the tongue, it falls backward as though being swallowed, falls through one of the tubes, and comes out through one of the open foot soles. Value Points: exceptionally rare, few models are known to exist, this being an early 1882 model and in superb original condition, with outstanding quality of bisque and sculpting especially notable in hands and muscular legs, choicest bisque and complexion. The bebe has its original blue silk dress, blue stockings, and original unique signed Bru shoes with "trap-door" opening in the soles to re-capture the "digested" biscuit.