Petit et Dumontier

Reproduction closed mouth, socket heads (circumference 8 inches) from Byron mould B413a on composition Byron French body 413.
Reproduced as children. See below for further construction details.
Original doll by Petit et Dumontier who made dolls in Paris from 1878-1890. Not many dolls are found with the P.D. mark (which is assumed as theirs). PD dolls have closely positioned eyes, pleasant looking faces and are assumed to have been made by the same sculptor. The original dolls seem to have metal articulated hands.
[Mildred Seeley's Fabulous French Bébé, Pages 49 and 115]

These were the first dolls I attempted after a break from doll-making. I think the painting and colouring are fair, but they are not without mistakes, which I will not dwell on here. I was very satisfied with the final effect of the clothing; they were supposed to be dressed, say, for the Sunday School outing.
The girl's dress was inspired by the dress shown on one of Mildred Seeley's Jumeau dolls. I used a Joan Nerini pattern as a basis for the dress. The fabric is a modern cotton with an interesting striped weave in a rose beige colour. I found various antique or modern laces that matched, and I laboriously painted and blotted one of the narrow laces with a weak solution of dolls hair dye until I achieved the tone I needed. The fabric is gathered by machine and I have embroidered over the lines of gathering in a smocking stitch. I added a modern brooch purchased over the web from Kathy's Kreations (P33 at $4.40). Socks are hand-knitted in Coats crochet cotton 20 and shoes made from a pattern in the workbooks by Lyn Alexander; I have used small doll-buttons obtainable from the Dolls House Draper or Little Trimmings on the shoes. I used modern stiff beige satin ribbon for the dress and her hair. Her underwear is cotton and decorated simply with beige bows.
The boy's clothing is taken from a Byron pattern supplied for this doll. Despite this I had to alter the trousers, making them larger in the waist and longer. His shirt is made in a loose weave cotton in brown and white check with a thread of yellow. At the neck he has a viscose ribbon, in a burnt yellow colour; I like these viscose ribbons, which have a texture like silk rather than modern stiff satin ribbon; I obtained this particular ribbon on a reel sold as a Christmas decoration and in consequence it was not at all expensive. Some later dolls would no doubt have been made using synthetic viscose ribbons but probably not the French dolls. His underwear is a plain cotton all-in-one. I made striped socks in stocking stitch using Coats crochet cotton 20; on the pattern he was shown as having red striped socks and I chose a bright yellow colour which toned with the fabric I was committed to using, (a light weight soft wool in brown). I adapted a boot pattern to make my own design with straps and buckles, dying some green gloving leather to a dull brown (using shoe leather dye). I was very pleased with the result at the time; my objective was for him to have boots but to enable his snazzy socks to be seen. However I later concluded that, although these boots do not look overtly wrong to me, they are in fact "lady boots" seen on many all-bisque dolls and probably not right for a boy at all.
The wigs are made from untreated mohair locks, which I cleaned, wefted and dyed. I used cardboard fruit packaging for the pate and a wig base of milliner's buckram.