Peggy Wiedman Casper is a great friend and one of the great athorities on a number different types of dolls. She has authored books like "Fashionable Terri Lee Dolls"  hard back and paper backs like "Terri Lee Dolls Identification and Price Guide". She is also well known by her dolls found in the 16th Blue Book and by collectors all over the United States who have purchased dolls from her. She is well known in the doll circle if you know what I mean. The 16th Blue Book for those who are young to doll collecting is a book for evaluating or appraising the value of unique dolls not always easily found. Peggy has spent her life time collecting dolls and helping others find what they want.

She can tell which dolls have the best quality and value. She can tell you where to locate dolls and how much they are going to cost you. She now has a blog site that she has started and will accept comments at that blog site. She has told me " I like the small dolls because I can have more dolls" and she also said " I cherish all kinds of dolls made of bisque, china, wax and cloth by many different manufacturers including Jumeau, Bru, Steiner, Huret". I am sure she is holding out on us as to which doll she likes the best. A person does not become an athority of anything overnight. There are dues to pay such as paying to much for a doll, getting a doll with flaws, knowing if clothes are original or not. and so many things that only collectors with an enormous amounts of talent and experience understand. Doll collectors know Terri Lee Dolls are  almost like Apple Pie and Chevrolet.

Like all things the dolls of great value are worth talking more about and here I will give you a little of what is known about the Jumeau Bisque Head Doll. "Long before the emergence of the large toy conglomerates of the twentieth century, the Maison Jumeau of Montreuil-sous-Bois near Paris, France had an international reputation for fine quality dolls. A century before Barbie was a household word the Bébé Jumeau formed the international benchmark for the highest quality and most desirable doll

The Jumeau company first emerged as a partnership between Louis-Desire Belton and Pierre-Francois Jumeau in Paris, 1841. By 1845 Pierre Francois Jumeau was trading in his own right. Although the Jumeau firm rapidly won commendation, including medals at international exhibitions for the outstanding qualities of the dresses in which their dolls were presented, very few Jumeau dolls can be securely identified dating before the 1870s. In 1872 the company began to produce its own porcelain heads, which they also supplied to other dollmakers. By 1877 the first Bébés (or dolls in the image of a little girl) were produced. In 1878 the Jumeau company won the unprecedented honour of the Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle (1878). The award was proudly advertised on the bodies, boxes, shoes and even the dress labels of the dolls. Jumeau won a number of other high awards including the prizes for the best dollmaker at both the Sydney International Exhibition (1879) and Melbourne International Exhibition (1880) in Australia. The "Golden Age" of the Jumeau factory lasted for two decades from the late 1870s to the late 1890s, when the competition from German dolls sent the firm into financial difficulties. The Jumeau dolls from the later 1890s are of more variable quality. German dolls in the 1890s were cheaper than the French, but still well made and much loved by little girls, even if they were by no means as elegant or graceful in face or costume as the best Jumeau dolls. The Jumeau company became part of the French conglomerate the Société Française de Fabrication de Bébés et Jouets. The S.F.B.J. still continued to use the Bébé Jumeau trademark throughout the 20th century, even producing dolls in the manner of Jumeau.

References

• Juliette Peers The Fashion Doll From Bébé Jumeau to Barbie Berg Publishers Oxford 2004

Another great authority of antique and original dolls is another very good friend on mine  Mary Barnes Kelly. She has also spent a life-time of collecting dolls and helping others learn and understand dolls. She also is well known for doll collecting and has wonderful dolls in the 16th Bule Book. If you look at any of these books and articles in them you will see her name come up on numerous occasions. If you have questions for our consideration, we will consider them and do our best to find out more about your problem or comments. It is wonderful to have such great doll collectors and knowledgable people as friends. I have known these ladies for years and only lately have I became more interested in doll collecting largely do to visiting with friends like Mary and Peggy. They and others where I live are doll collectors that have been in the business and know what they are talking about. My mother has been collecting dolls for years but only as a hobby. She has some newer artists dolls and a few antique dolls and she treasures all of them.