The collector: Real works of art - Spokane’s Sampson collects French dolls that weren’t created to be toys

Long before Barbie and American Girl dolls captivated children’s interest, dolls were handmade works of art.

When strolling through a rummage sale in Wenatchee, Tom Sampson happened upon an antique baby doll. A lover of old toys, he plopped down $100 for it – spendy for a college student in 1977.

“The face is what drew me,” he said. “It was made in Germany and I discovered the face was made of bisque.”

Bisque is unglazed porcelain with a matte finish, giving it a realistic skin-like texture. Bisque dolls had their peak of popularity between 1860 and 1900, created by French and German makers.

While researching the doll, Sampson learned about the French dollmaker Jumeau. Known for dolls with beautiful bisque faces and exquisite clothing, Jumeau and his son designed and produced dolls from the 1870s to the late 1890s.

“My goal was always to get one French bisque doll, which I did some time in the ’80s,” Sampson said.

But collecting took a backseat to his nursing career and he and his wife raising three children. He still perused magazines and catalogs and is a member of three online collector clubs. When their nest emptied, Sampson began to add to his collection in earnest.

“That one French bisque doll led to two, and two lead to three,” he said. “It can be an obsession.”

He enjoys learning about the history of the dolls and their makers and the context of what was happening in the world at the time they were made. He pointed to a group of dolls in his living room that was made in the early 1880s.

“These are called poupee. They weren’t created to be playthings. They were used as mannequins to display the latest fashions.”

He picked up one wearing a blue silk dress trimmed with yellow ribbon and lace. A tiny cameo pendant hangs from her neck.

“She came dressed in underwear, but I happened upon this blue dress,” Sampson said.

The silk is disintegrating and he had to replace the ribbon, but the dress fits perfectly and he feels it’s worth the $1,500 price tag.

Originally, the dolls came with complete wardrobes including earrings, socks and shoes. Sampson is always looking for wardrobe pieces – especially shoes.

“If a doll has shoes, it’s a bonus,” he said,

His latest addition purchased a few months ago has a pair of leather shoes, with “Paris” stamped on the bottoms. She wears a pink dress with a wide silver buckle and a lacy bonnet tied beneath her chin. Her childlike features reveal that she was made in the late 1890s.

When Jumeua’s son joined the company, they gradually shifted from making adult-looking creations to making dolls that resembled babies or little girls and the transformation from stylish mannequins to children’s toys was complete.

The workmanship enthralls Sampson. Realistic bisque heads feature expressive eyes made of glass.

“For me, it’s all about the eyes,” he said. “That’s what gets me.”

One such doll in an ivory-lace trimmed gown gazes at the world from heavily lashed dark gray eyes.

“If you look closely, you can see the spiral shapes in the iris,” Sampson said. “This dates the doll to the 1880s.”

Dolls from that era feature eight ball-jointed leather bodies with jointed fingers and toes and are stuffed with ground cork. Later models had paper mache’ bodies that were pressed into molds.

Sampson doesn’t give them names, and not everyone in his family is thrilled with his collection.

“My 4½-year-old granddaughter is the only one who likes them,” he said.

When the other grandchildren spent the night, he’d have to cover the dolls

.

“They said the eyes freaked them out.”

Sampson and his wife retired to Spokane, moving from Seattle two years ago, and he downsized his collection for the move.

“I had 50, now I have about 30,” he said. “My next goal is to get a doll in the original box that has never been played with.”

It’s hard for him to pick a favorite, but he is partial to a dark-haired doll with warm brown eyes. She wears a smocked blue floral print cotton dress – something for which Jumeau was known.

“It’s an original dress – she’s the closest to an out-of-the-box original I own.”

With grandchildren nearby and two cats in the home, Sampson rarely displays his treasures, but every time he takes them out, they bring him joy.

“To me, each one is a piece of art,” he said.