Armand Marseille Dolls
The Armand Marseille porcelain factory made doll heads in Koppelsdorf from 1885, when Marseille bought the Liebennann & Wegescher porcelain factory, until 1949, when Hermann Marseille moved to West Germany.
The Marseille factory was one of the largest in the German toy industry, employing at one time over 800 people and operating ten kilns. Hundreds of workers individually dressed the dolls to reflect the special needs and orders of importers all over the world. Among the firms for whom they made doll heads were Louis Amberg & Sons, Arranbee Do. Co, C.M. Bergmann, George Borgfeldt & Co, Butler Bros., Cuno & Otto Dressel, Gebruder Eckardt, Otto Gans, Max Handwerck, B. Illfelder, Hitz Jacobs & Co, Koenig & Wernicke, Montgomery Ward, F.A.O. Schwarz, Sears Roebuck, E.U. Steiner, Wagner & Zetsche, Wannamaker Dept. Stores, Aldolf Wislizenus, Louis Wolf & Co and many other manufacturers and importers.
Armand Marseille doll heads are ususally marked with the makers initials and a mold number, for instance the “Dream Baby” dolls so popular in the 1920′s were marked “A.M./Germany/341/4-0/K” (the K desginates a socket head) and “A.M./Germany/351/GK”. Another popular line sold in the United States were the “Kiddiejoy” dolls and their bisque heads bear the mold numbers 345, 372 and 375. A typical mark for these dolls would be “Germany/Kiddiejoy/372/A.M.”. These dolls were sold by the New York importer Jacobs & Kassler.