We've Got your Numbers 370 and 390

 

Armand Marseille Dolls:  We’ve got your numbers, 370 and 390

 

 

Armand Marseille made dolls from around 1865- 1925 and beyond, in Thuringia, Germany’s Valley of the Dolls and birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

For many of us, the first antique doll we add to our collection is an Armand Marseille.  Mine is small, about 8 inches, and is named “Melinda” and she joined the doll family when I was 11.  She was dressed as a Dutch boy in Vollendam attire, with a short, puffy brown mohair wig with a center part, almost black glass, stationary eyes, and an open mouth with tiny teeth.  One ankle needed repairing. She was a painted bisque doll, which means the paint was applied to the bisque after it was fired, not fired into the bisque as most antique bisque dolls are made.

 

My mother went back to the Antique Show where we first saw Melinda, and brought her home.  We undressed her, and discovered her five piece, “stick” papier mache body. Mom glued her foot, and repaired the paint job with—calamine lotion!  She still bears that paint job!  A little spot on her chin Mom touched up with her own make up.

 

Since that day, Melinda has been dressed as a little girl.  She wears tiny ballet flats on her feet, and a lace, pale blue dress and white straw hat.  I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

 

Because of Melinda, A & M dolls have become personal favorites.  Alma, Floradora, Rosebud, the beautiful 1894, a large, rare sized Dream Baby, Mabel, a Gypsy, several Native American dolls and a Scots girl have joined us.

 

One very large 370 came to me from a friend. She is mint, and has never been played with. She has sleeping blue eyes, wears an antique green velvet dress, and her original, blond mohair wig.  

 

Another mint 390 head is as perfect as a Meissen figurine.  It has never been attached to a body, and may have been used as a salesman’s demo.

 

When I taught classes in diversity and culture, I mentioned Armand Marseille.

 

As many of us know, Armand Marseille, founder of the firm, was born in the mid 19^th c in St. Petersburg, Russia, the child of French Huguenot parents. According to Dollreference.com, he left Russia with his family.  They moved to Germany after 1860.

 

In 1884, Marseille bought a toy factory in Sonneberg, Germany, that of Mathias Lambert.  In 1885, he bought the Liebermann & Wegescher porcelain factory in Kopplesdorf.

 

The popular 370 head was made as a shoulder head for a kid or similar body, while the 390 head was a socket head made for ball jointed composition bodies.  The dolls had glass eyes, often sleep eyes, mohair wigs, and an open mouth with teeth.  They are the iconic “dolly faced’ dolls that often appear as propos in movies.

 

Many collectors could have an A&M doll and not know it. He made doll heads for other companies, including Columbia for CM Bergman.  Other trademarked name heads or models besides those above were Bessie, Darling doll, Duchess, Lilly, Lissy, Miss Millionaire, My Companion, My Dearie, my Lovely Doll, My Playmate,  Our Anne [label reads P.D.G. Co.], Daisy Dimple, Sunshine, Dainty Dorothy, and Real Kid Doll.  Some of these were distributed by Sears.

 

Many of the burned doll heads found in old dumps, or buried with bottles, were Marseille heads.  I still love to rescue these heads and dolls and make them into new dolls, restored to their former glory. 

 

To many collectors, the A&M 370 or 390 heads are “gateway dolls” to the world of antiques.  For more and more collectors, though, these lovely dolls are a “destination” doll, worthy of being in any fine collection