Jumeau, Émile-Louis
Émile (born April 18, 1843), was the younger son of François-Pierre Jumeau (died 1895), whose family had owned a fabric store in Rémalard in 1837. The elder Jumeau met and married in January 1841 the niece of Lucius Junius-Herissey, one of the few French doll makers at the time. Jumeau gained invaluable experience by joining Herissey in Paris. Jumeau was first in partnership with Louis-Désiré Belton, but after the death of his wife in 1844, started his own business. After 1848, Jumeau became a first-rate doll maker, won a bronze medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1849, and was invited to take part in the London World's Fair in 1851, where he won a gold medal, much due to the dolls’ dresses.
In the 1850s, the company added enameled porcelain dolls to its inventory, but the most successful dolls were those in biscuit that earned the company an excellent reputation for the quality of its products. In 1872, Pierre-François, dissatisfied with the quality of the doll heads he ordered in Germany, launched a porcelain factory in Montreuil to cover his own production, after which he became a supplier for other doll makers. Emile-Louis, from his marriage to Adèle Amélie Aumoitte (died May 16, 1843, after the birth of Émile), took over the firm. He was responsible for the construction of the Jumeau castle or “Villa Jumeau” in Longny-au-Perche, began taking over the management of the business in 1866. In 1877, he created the “Unbreakable Baby ", with a head made by Jumeau, a girl's face and a fully articulated body. The Jumeau dolls were fashionably dressed in the popular styles of the time, and often had well-made and mature forms. They had a trousseau, a line of clothing and accessories, that followed the latest fashion.
This "unbreakable baby" is composed of molded cardboard with porcelain head, hollow wooden members, then articulations and patella by juxtaposition of turned pieces, finally of so-called unbreakable hands, thanks to a composition of mixed potash silicate glue and sawdust. The artist Carrier-Belleuse sculpted a model of head. In 1878, the company won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition, a distinction that was proudly announced on all its products. New prizes followed at the Sydney International Exposition in 1879 and Melbourne in 1880. In 1885, at the Antwerp Exhibition, the Jumeau dolls won the diploma of honor, a reward stamped on each new doll. The golden age of society goes from the late 1870s to the late 1890s when the company employed more than 200 workers with an annual production of 100,000 dolls. Expansion into the international market by Émile-Louis propelled sales to new heights. In 1879, Jumeau commissioned the sculptor of the Emperor, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse to create an epicene head, to use for a boy or a girl. Carrier-Belleuse is said to have used as a model a portrait of Henri de Navarre at the age of four for this model, which was known as the "Jumeau Triste" In 1889, Émile-Louis was knighted by the Legion of Honor. The company closed in 1899.
