The new Exhibition of the Musée de la Poupée-Paris, from November 12, 2003 till March 21, 2004, is dedicated to
" Doudous ". It reunites more than a hundred Dolls and Animals in filled fabric, industrial or craft production.

The fabric of cloth dolls exists for a very long time but, the fabric being a very perishable material, the first specimens of artisanal manufacture preserved in collections today date only from XIXe and are primarily of American manufacture. In Europe the fashion for the cloth dolls fabric rather developed at the beginning of the XXe century with the awakening by exceptional women that the traditional dolls of porcelain and composition did not correspond completely to waitings of the children and thus did not support tenderness, the comfort and the maternal instinct contrary to a fabric dolls, softer, more flexible and lighter. Parallel to the revival of material , the dolls also moved in the form with appearance of the "Bébé de caractère ", very expressive, and of the babies with bent members. These famous women, among who are distinguished Käthe Krüse, Dora Petzold, Margarete Steiff in Germany, Elena König Scavani in Italy, Norah Wellings in England, Louise Kampes in the United States, started by producing artisanal fabric dolls for their children before launching out, toward the request growing, in the industrial production.

 

With what is used the doudou ?

Chosen for its softness, its form, its odor or other specific reasons to each child, the doudou is the witness of the plays, the guard of the sleep, the companion of displacements, the confidant of sorrows... Its familiar presence reassures the child and aids him to overcome his first anguishes. This transitional object, doll or animal, have an irreplaceable emotional value.

Vitrine de Poupées récentes (après 1955), dont deux Bécassine Reine Degrais, une Raggedy Ann de M.Héritier, une poupée Golia...etc.

Héros enfantins : Minnie (Lenci), Pluto, Dumbo et les souris de Cendrillon (O'Lis)...

 

Between the two wars, much enterprises launched out in these "artistic dolls" such as names them in the "Catalogues d'Etrennes", because of the artistic look of their painted face and their decorative role in the interiors Art Nouveaux and especially Arts Déco. They are besides often the same manufacturers who realize according to similar techniques, the dolls toy and the boudoir dolls who have a purely decorative objective.

In France, companies of average and big size developed between the two wars; the principal ones are Raynal, Venus, Emile Lang, Pintel, Ravca, Magali, the SFBJ, Clelia, Gerb's, Nicette, Cottin.

After the second world war, in spite of the appearance of the new plastics, some manufacturers continued to work fabric, for example Reine Degrais for Bécassine in France or Georgene Novelties in the USA.

Ours en mohair (France vers 1920),Poupée Lenci modèle 110 vers 1924, Clown-pelote à épingles de Lenci vers 1920 -Militaire, "Kathi" et "Wilma", fabrication STEIFF vers 1920

Communiante "Raynal" (1928-1934), feutrine et tissu
Ours "Fadap", peluche de mohair(1925-1926)
Poupon "Raynal ", feutrine et jersey bourré (1935-1938)
Trois "Venus" (1928-1938) feutrine et jersey (pour la rose) bourrés

At the end of 1970, the retro fashions announce, with the range Holly Hobby, the return to the romantic dolls. Artisanal cloth dolls are born like the dools of Clo and the dolls of Marie d'O.

Actualy we return to material in creations of the dolls' artists as those of J R Wright in the United States, Christa Mann to Germany or Malou Ancelin to France.

"Betty Blue", "Dolly Dear" poupées en toile imprimée non découpées. "Curly Look" imprimée et bourrée, Poupée en tissu imprimé et visage photographique.....

Poupées en feutrine et toile bourrée Gerbs 1925-1930

 

The cloth animal "doudous"

The stuffed fabric animals appeared before the animals in true plush. They however were very quickly supplanted by the plush in mohair or very silky and more realistic artificial fibres. They are often the same manufacturers such as Pintel, Steiff, Girardin, Dean's who realized the animals in plush and those in tissu.

Very soft materials.

The dolls and animals are carried out, according to the manufacturer, fabric of cotton, jersey, pongee of silk, "crêpe de Chine". For the stuffing, Käthe Krüse will use the hair of reindeer, Steiff the shavings, Lenci cotton and in France one will choose rather Kapoc and the straw.

 

ON THE LEFT : here is Poupendol's favorite Doudou for all the emotion and the tenderness which he wears in him!

He is a cuddly Bear of mohair, filled in the wooden fiber, manufacture Steiff by 1908 / 1910.

He perfectly filled the " Doudou's " role. In a Protestant orphanage in vaudoises valleys of Piémont, where he consoled three generations of small orphans, then retired in the Musée de la Poupée - Paris.

 

Poupée"Kamkins"de Louise Kampes,corps
en toile, tête en toile pressée à chaud sur
un masque en gomme(1920/1934), Poupée Gre-Poir (1927/1930),

Alsacienne de French Doll Makers de New-York.Cette entreprise avait absorbé "Gre-Poir" en 1930 et
vendait des poupées
en tissu prétendument faites en France....

Le lapin en velours côtelé lui est bien français !

N'est-il pas beau ce Lenci, modèle 500, né entre 1925 et 1926, avec son torse en feutrine gaufrée gonflée par le kapok ? Il est d'ailleurs admiré par une autre petite poupée Lenci assise sous son chapeau de paille, modèle 159 G. Remarquez la regard un peu jaloux du groom, Lenci Modèle 563

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