French Dolls Vol 1 A-K by Francois & Danielle Theimer

Table of Contents

Readers will find this book informative and fascinating reading about French doll history of the 19th century up to 1925. This time period encompasses the pre-industrial era, the Industrial Revolution, the dawning of the 20th century, and post WWI.

No doll firm survived throughout that entire period, although several lasted for half a century or more. But today's collector is looking for more than fascinating reading. The need is for knowledge about the dolls that one owns or wish-es to acquire. This is the hard part.

In fact, the history of dolls in 19th century France is complicated and that fact underlies this two-volume work. Thousands of references to doll firms, inventors, stores, and actual dolls are arranged alphabetically within the 750 pages of this work enabling collectors for the first time to research and document their antique doll treasures. Photographs or illustrations of marks, illustrations from original patent drawings, and actual advertisements from contemporary business registries accompany most entries.

There are, of course, superb photographs of existing examples of actual dolls, many previously undocumented. Well-indexed, more than 4000 illustrations and color photographs. Volume I.