Fabulous French Dolls

Here is a list of the French Doll Makers we will be discussing. I hope you will find it helpful and inspire you to make one of these beauties.

House of Bru
We must speak of the “House of Bru” because of all the dolls had the Bru name long after the business was run by people other than Bru.

Bru dolls, both fashion and lady, were assembled by Leon Casmir Bru and his wife Appolyne on St. Denis Street in Paris. Leon Casmir Bru had worked for a doll assembler for a short time before deciding to start his own business. Appolyne, a seamstress, proved the elaborate costumes for the lovely fashion dolls, which were unmarked except for the letters on the head. Later lady dolls were marked B.Jne et Cie, B.J. or R.B. (Barrios).

In 1883 the Bru business was sold to Henri Chevrot, who produced all the wonderful designs of Bru Jne. The last owner of the Bru company, Paul Giraud, took over in 1890.

In study of the faces used on the wonderful Bru Bébés, there were only three shapes for the three master molds. The earliest of the children dolls was the unmarked Brevete. For identification, it had only the sticker on the chest. This doll had cupped-like hands with each nail outlined in pink. The head was mounted on a shoulder plate and placed on a leather body. All of the other French companies placed their first Bébé heads on composition bodies. Leon Casmir Bru had been producing leather bodies for lady dolls so he made a leather body in childlike proportions for the Bébés.

Illustration 1 is a transition doll, Bru Jne 5, 17” tall. She has the face of a Brevete and a leather body that resembles parts of the Brevete and Bru Jne. This doll has lovely ballerina hands of a new Bru Jne. Today, the Brevete dolls are popular and add to any collection.

Other transition Brus between the Brevete and the Bru Jne are the Circle Dot Bru or the Crescent Bru, which came after the Brevete. This was an entirely new face the second master mold of Bébé Brus.

With the have baby-like cheeks and teeth, this face was modified slightly one during production. The Circle-and-Dot and the Crescent Brus all came from the same mold.

Leon Casmir Bru had sculpted the Bébé Bru Jne and the master mold was made before Chevrot bought the business. This was the Bru Bébé master mold number three, which produced a successful business for seven years. Bébé Bru Jne was modeled to be a child, other than the Circle Dot Bru.

Hundreds of different Bru faces were all conceived form this master Bru Jne mold. Actually, all Bru Jne faces are taken from this same mold. The differences were made by cutting the eyes larger or smaller, and by the removal of the teeth or tongue line. The basic shape was left untouched.

Other subtle differences were made in the painting, shape of the brows, and the shape of the lips. Even the color of the eyes changed the Bru so that while one was spectacular, another was mediocre.

Henri Chevrot added a new body for the Bru Jne head. Usually this body is reffered to as the “Chevrot Body”, it has a slimmed down tummy and hips. He added a pin joint at the elbow and another at the knee, and made the lower legs of wood. The lower arms were bisque with a few exceptions of wood.

Overlapping the Bru Jne on the Chevrot Body was the "Nursing Bru", the most popular Bru
doll ever produced. It sold and kept selling, even after SFBJ took over production in 1899. Mouths on the Bru Jne heads were remodeled to become the “Nursing Brus”. A mechanism was added in the head for drawing water from a bottle. There was also an “Eating Bru”, which is seldom seen. Dry food was put into the mouth of “Bebe Germond”. The food fell down throught the body and came out at the foot. Shoes were made with little flaps to take out the food. “Bebe Germound” had heavy, very chubby bisque legs and were not used on any other Brus.

The same hand molds were used repeatedly. The first hand, with curved under fingers on the Brevete was only used on the Brevetes. The ballerina hands were the loveliest and most artistic hands made by any company at that time. The hands were first used on short arms that went into a leather sleeve, then used as well as the pin-jointed, elbow length arms. Apparently, these forearms were not sized down with every head reduction, but were used in one size for all three head sizes. Other Bru hands were made of wood and none of those were shaped like the ballerina hands.

Very early in the Bru production, composition bodies were made, but they were not popular. Today, many people think that all composition Bru bodies were late in production, but after research, we figured out composition bodies were started by Bru Jne. Then after 1890, Bru were again made with composition bodies by Paul Giraud.

One of the most wonderful Brus ever made was the Bru Jne 7 that had an all-wood body. In 1869, Leon Casmir Bru advertised his lady dolls on all-wood bodies, jointed at the waist, ankles and wrists, as well as at the shoulders, hips and elbows. About ten years later, Bru Jne copied the wood body for the a Bébé, changing the lady type wood body to childlike proportions for the doll named Bébé Modele. This body construction was absolutely wonderful for posing a doll. With all the joints the original lady dolls had, the dolls could be posed in any position. That wood body proved too expensive and time consuming to make, so few were produced.

Apparently the wood body was not made at all during the time of Chevrot. Some eight years later. Chevrot produced a modified version of the wood bodies with joints, more or less as we seen in composition bodies.

In 1889, the House of Bru changed hands again when Paul Girard took over. Girard altered the Bru Jnes from the old master molds to a look that was barely recognizable. And he added an “R” to the signature. Girard made teeth, open mouths, and altered the chin. He made kiss-throwing Brus, walking Brus, and added in other of his inventions.

NOTE: There were other patents and inventions from the time Bru began his doll business, but the main ones that collectors’ treasure have been mentioned here.

This list shows the sequence of Bru bodies, which of course, over lapped in production:

1.     Leather and wood lady bodies
2.     Brevete chubby leather body, leather feet, half bisque arms
3.     Circle and Dot chubby leather body, leather
      feet, and half bisque arms
4.     All-wood multi-jointed body, wood hands and feet
5.     Gusseted leather body, leather lower legs,
     elbow length bisque arms
6.     Slim leather body(Chevrot), pin-jointed bisque arms
7.     Same body with wood pin-jointed lower arms
8.     Wood body with eight joints
9.     Composition body
10. Kiss-throwing composition body.

Illustration 1	Illustration 2 - Bru Jne 7 on right, is older. Note the slim waist and hips on the Bru Jne 5 on the left.	Illustration 3 - Bru Brevete
Illustration 4 – Bru Jne 6 Notice the mismatched eyebrows, black line around eye cuts, black lashes, and softly shaded mouth.	Illustration 5 – Bru Jne 9 Her brows have lighter feathering over a dark shadow brow. The eye liner and eyelashes are black, and the eye shadow is mauve. The bisque coloring is quite pale with mostly side blushing. Instead of white between her lips she has darker shading on the area sometimes referred as a tongue. The body on this doll was done early in the 1880s as she has the chubby leather body with leather legs and feet. Her arms are of Chevrot’s new design with a bisque forearm ending in a joint and with a pin going across so the arms are movable.	Illustration 6 – Bébé Teteur (Nursing Bru) was one of the most successful of the Bru dolls.
Illustration 7 - Bru Jne 11	Illustration 8 - Bru Jne 15	Illustration 9 - Circle Dot Bru