French Bisque Bebe Gourmand by Leon Casimir Bru

12 Watching

Live Auction

18" (46 cm.) Pressed bisque swivel head with very full cheeks and strong throat, on kid-edged bisque shoulderplate with modeled bosom and shoulderblades, 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: restoration on the throat of head, and feeding mechanism tubes need reattachment, bisque shoulderplate, arms and legs are excellent, kid torso is original and excellent. Marks: (circle/dot symbol on head) Bte SGDG (forehead) 1 T (right shoulder). 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 is designed that when a tiny biscuit is placed on the tongue, it falls backward as though being swallowed, falls through a tube, 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, with very fine sculpting especially notable in hands and muscular legs, with original aqua silk dress, and original unique signed Bru shoes with "trap-door" opening in the soles to re-capture the "digested" biscuit.