Bleuette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bleuette is a doll that was produced from 1905 to 1960 in France, that was only available to readers of the girls' magazine La Semaine de Suzette, or "Suzette's Week".
The magazine came out weekly and included patterns for the doll. More than 1,060 patterns were published over the 55 years Bleuette was available.
The first Bleuette dolls are known as "Premiere Bleuette", and were given free to those who had placed an order for a year's subscription to La Semaine de Suzette before its first publication in February 1905, and were only available until one month after the first issue. 20,000 Jumeau Dolls were ordered from the Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets (SFBJ) for the initial advertisement, but 60,000 subscriptions were received, and this first supply of dolls were gone before the first issue was even released.
Bleuette has a fully jointed composition body. She was 27 cm (10" 5/8) until 1933, then 29 cm (11 3/8) until production ended in 1960. She had a bisque head until World War II, then a composition head until 1958 when a hard plastic body and head was used for the last two years of production.
Over the years the doll was given a younger sister, Benjamine, in 1926, which was only on the market a short time, then a baby brother, Bambino in 1928. An older sister, Rosette, was her companion in her last years between 1955 and 1960.
The doll is extremely popular with modern doll collectors for its size and the vast assortment of patterns available spanning 50 years of fashion trends.
