Fortune teller: During the nineteenth century telling fortunes was a favourite parlour game. Playing cards, board games, and dolls such as this allowed guests to select a fortune and read it to the group.
Fortunes were as often gloomy as cheerful; the predominantly female audience for this game is evident in the number of fortunes concerning one’Äôs marital fate. "Do not fear: you will find a husband soon." "You are too fussy and will never find a man to marry." One pictured here consoles the recipient with, "Do not lose hope: your husband will abandon Bacchus."
This doll has a parian head and shoulderplate, and a kid body and limbs. Her skirt consists of over one hundred ’Äúfortunes’Äù written on slips of paper folded to hide the fortune within. As they are hand written in French, it is likely she was produced in France, probably between 1870 and 1890.
Le Papillon Barbie: Barbie dolls have been produced since 1959, becoming the most recognised and best selling doll in the world. Although Barbie is primarily a children’Äôs toy, in recent years Barbies have been produced as collectables aimed at a purely adult market.
This doll, Le Papillon (Butterfly) Barbie, was produced in 1999 exclusively for toystore F.A.O. Schwarz to celebrate Barbie’Äôs 40th Anniversary. She is totally a luxury product with her velvet outfit trimmed with rich embroidery and rhinestones, and her retail price was more than ten times the price of an ordinary play Barbie. Bob Mackie has been designing glamorous gowns for Cher since the 1970s and has extended his attention to the smaller canvas of Barbie since 1991.
La Marotte: According to a French dictionary of 1778 a marotte was defined as a stick with a doll’Äôs head on one end and a fancy hat. [Coleman’Äôs Collector’Äôs Encyclopedia of Dolls 1968.] Other names for this toy are Folly Head, Whirling Musical Doll, and Schwenker (in German). The main use of the marotte was as a child’Äôs toy.
This doll has a bisque shoulderplate head marked "F.G." in a cartouche, usually taken to indicate that it was made by the French firm of Fernand Gaultier. She was probably made around 1880-90. Her body is cardboard and wood with an inbuilt music box, operated by the ivory handled stick, which also can be used as a whistle at the far end. Her outfit is of multi-coloured silk pieces trimmed in gold lace with bells at the tip of each piece, adding to her music when she is spun.