Bleuette, the doll, greeted the world in 1905 as a free gift to anyone who subscribed for one year to the weekly magazine for girls, “La Semaine de Suzette.” The magazine declared the doll essential to its readers.
In 1905 Newspapers in France announce the new magazine targeted an reader audience of girls ages 6 to 14. Some ads said that subscribers would receive an articulated Jumeau doll 27 cm in height as a free gift. Not all newspapers ads used the name Bleuette. In 1905 The Bleuette doll ad also appeared in the children’s book “Maurice en Nourrice.”
Finally, here is a fashionable illustrated newspaper, particularly suitable for girls aged six to fourteen. It’s the week of Suzette, the first issue of which is distributed free everywhere today. Parents will be able to make the joy of their darlings inexpensively by offering them this charming journal. The numbers, which will appear every Thursday, will sell for 10 cents, and the subscription (6 francs per year) GIVES you the right to a delicious articulate bebe Jumeau. La Semaine de Suzette has its offices; 55, quai des Grands-Augustins, in Paris.
Translation – Le Journal, 1905 February 4.
We Dress Bleuette
The Suzette’s Week magazine had a regular article called “We Dress Bleuette.” In 1905 newspaper announcements of the new magazine explained that girls would learn to dress Bleuette from head to toe. It published patterns for Bleuette’s dresses and outfits while guaranteeing the patterns were exact for the doll’s measurements. Some of the patterns included instructions for crochet. Sometimes the magazine included how to create a kitchenette or other doll house type item for Bleuette.
The Bleuette doll changed over time in body shape as well as the body’s mold. The very first doll used the stock Emile Jumeau contributed to the SFBJ company in 1899. The initial Jumeau doll had a much more chunky body than the SFBJ dolls that followed. Dress patterns reflected the doll manufactured and sold the year the patterns were published. For example, the doll had a height of 27 centimeters, a fact mentioned again and again in the ads. Later the doll came at a height of 29 centimeters.
The Doll’s Trousseau and Catalogs
The magazine also advertised all the extra outfit items one could purchase for the doll. In 1915 a list of items included things like a red cross nurse costume with an armband, dress, apron, headdress and slippers for 3 francs, an English woolen pelerine travel coat for .95 francs, or a boater hat trimmed with silk ribbon for .90 francs. The magazine regularly encouraged its readers to request Bleuette’s catalogs.
Doll collectors hoping to identify Gautier and Languereau Bleuette outfits today might consult Barbara Craig Hilliker’s book, “Bleuette the Doll and Her Wardrobe.” Another book by Florence Theriault called, “J’Aime Ma Bleuette: the Dolls and Costumes of Bleuette and Friends.” Theriault’s book has beautiful photographs with descriptions of the fabrics, years found, and the markings of the doll that wore them.
The same ad above appears in other newspapers the same year, such as L’Echo de France and Le Petit Marseillais.
Background History
The weekly publication came recommended as an educational, Christian, and interesting read for children. Recommendations appeared in Catholic quarterly newspapers with the purpose to help parents be informed regarding children’s publications in order to care for their child’s moral health, Christian faith, their future, and value as human beings.
Gautier and Languereau
The publishers Gautier and Languereau advertised themselves as booksellers and publishers of Grands-Augustins #55 in the 1926 issue of “Annuaire du commerce Didot-Bottin.” (p. 2890) In 1917 the publishers Henri Gautier and Languereau had a combined capital of 913,226 francs (Le Courrier, 1917 Dec. 29, p. 2). Henri Gautier born in Paris in 1855 died in 1938 was the uncle of Maurice Languereau (1867-1941).
Gautier and Languereau had partnered with SFBJ, then maker of the Jumeau dolls, for an estimated 20,000 dolls as part of the marketing plan. When it launched they soon ran out and had to order nearly three times as many.
Bleuette, the doll, went up for sale after these first orders ran out. In 1915 the Bleuette doll cost 2 francs and 8 francs in 1920.
The Character BLEUETTE
While learning about the famous doll, one might wonder “Why the name Bleuette?” Is there some kind of historical or cultural significance to the name that contributed to her character? Though one cannot ask Gautier or Languereau why the name was chosen, one could find some other Bleuette characters in France’s past before the 1905 arrival of the first Bleuette doll.
La Poupee Modele, a Magazine for Young Girls
A french magazine for young girls called “La Poupee Modele” began in 1863 and appeared on the 15th of each month. La Poupee Modele was simply a young girls version of the newspaper for women “Journal des Demoiselles.” The magazine La Poupee Modele continued until the 1920s and was in active publication at the time La Semaine de Suzette was first issued.
One might compare the 20th century “La Semaine de Suzette” with the 19th century “La Poupee Modele.” Both had a purpose to educate young girls using dolls to gain interests. Both magazines had conservative values in mind for its audience.
La Poupee Modele begins in 1863 in the voice of a very old doll who had known many small girls in her lifetime. The old dolls tells her purpose:
My goal is to teach you, while creating new pleasures for you, to become good little girls, well polished, very kind, and model little housewives. I want you to be able, thanks to me, to manage the housework of your doll, as well as your good mother knows how to manage hers, and that you are capable of directing the education of this darling doll, as your teachers direct yours. Finally, I want my advice to help you acquire all the qualities you lack to become perfect little girls
La Poupee Modele, 1863, p. 2
The old doll explains the first lesson in order to encourage young girls to care for their dolls. With this mindset one might see how young readers would learn to value and care for the expensive dolls purchased for them by their parents.
A Character Named Bleuette in La Poupee Modele
A continuing story by a character named Bleuette appears in La Poupee Modele (a little girls diary) from 1866. The writer states that the story began in the July issue of 1865.
In the diary entry for February 1867 a little girl named Bleuette writes about her grandfather. The grandfather teaches the young girl about the roots in the gardens and the lesson turns into a moral lesson:
Eh bien, fillette, il en est de nos défauts comme des racines de chiendent. Ils poussent dans notre cœur aussi vite que cette plante nuisible dans les massifs d’André. C’est pour cela que, quand nous en voyons un, si petit qu’il soit, lever la tête, il faut vite, vite aussi le déraciner. Autrement, sais-tu-ce qu’il adviendrait? Il pousserait à ce défaut de si longues, si longues racines, qu’avec toute la bonne volonté du monde on ne serait plus maître de les arracher et qu’elles étoufferaient peu à peu tout ce que Dieu avait planté de bon dans notre cœur.
Translation: Well, little girl, our faults are like the roots of couch grass. They grow in our hearts as fast as that noxious plant in the André massifs. This is why, when we see one, however small, raise its head, we must quickly, quickly also uproot it. Otherwise, do you know what would happen? It would grow such long, such long roots from this defect that with all the good will in the world we would no longer be able to uproot them and that they would gradually suffocate all the good that God had planted in our hearts. (LE CAHIER ROSE DE BLEUETTE, La Poupee de Modele, 1867, p. 77)
Perhaps, one might conjecture, the french familiarity with the Bleuette character and a doll might cause the name to easily fit promoted doll in La Semaine de Suzette. If the parents or grandparents had a sentimental attachment already to the name Bleuette in relation to a children’s magazine, perhaps they would be more inclined to subscribe. Why not?
Note: The author writes these thing as a student learning. She does not claim to be an expert. Links to sources of information are mentioned in the post. When more learning occurs, this post may be updated, corrected or revised.
(see other French doll manufacturing names and their marks here.)