Tête-à-Tête with Tête Jumeau Bébé

January 30, 2014

In case your French is a little rusty (ok, we had to look it up too!), tête is the French word for head. This beautiful porcelain doll’s head was made by French dollmaker Pierre Francoise Jumeau in the 1880s. Dolls (or bébés) made by the Jumeau firm were known for their soft, expressive facial features and were most often made of bisque porcelain.

This particular bébé is not only pretty and well-dressed, but she’s also an automaton! The body of the doll contains clockwork mechanisms that are wound with a key to make her move. Automata tend to have somewhat slow and jerky movements that may seem a bit creepy or strange to us today, but dolls like this one were a popular form of entertainment in the 18th to early 20th centuries. It’s a good thing she’s so lovely to look at!