$45,000 Bid Wins 19th-Century Doll

A 19th-Century French doll known as a “long-faced Jumeau” sold for $45,000 at a Los Angeles auction Saturday, setting a world record, a spokeswoman for the auction house said.

The 29-inch, blue-eyed Jumeau Triste, with a bisque head and pressed wood-pulp body, was sold to a New York City man on the first day of a two-day auction by Theriaults, The Doll Masters, a nationwide auction house, spokeswoman Tammy Trujillo said. The new owner of the doll asked to remain anonymous.

The previous record of $38,000 was set in 1984 by the French doll A Marque, made about 1880 by a now-defunct Paris company of the same name.

The $45,000 Jumeau, made in the 1880s by the then Emile Jumeau Co. of Paris, is rare because of its size and excellent condition, Trujillo said. She said the Jumeau Triste, nicknamed the “long-faced Jumeau,” is larger than most dolls of its era.