Bisque doll

[1] When producing a bisque doll, ceramic raw materials are shaped in a mold and fired at more than 1,260 °C (2,300 °F).

[2] China dolls were made of white glazed porcelain, giving them a characteristic glossy appearance, and their hair was painted on.

[2] French and German bisque dolls began taking over the market after 1860, and their production continued until after World War I.

[2] In the Passage Choiseul area of Paris, an industry grew around making clothing and accessories for the dolls.

[2] Foremost among these were the French Bébés from doll makers like Jumeau, Bru, Steiner, and Gaultier, which grew in popularity between the 1860s and 1880s.

[2] The earliest ones are often referred to as dolly-faced dolls and were made by companies like Armand Marseille, Simon & Halbig, Kämmer & Reinhardt [de], and Kestner.

[7][1][8] A few German manufacturers like Kestner also made more detailed dolls entirely of bisque with articulated necks, arms, or legs.

[8] Bisque dolls were made as commercial products in Germany for the toy rather than collector market until the late 1930s.

Japan also produced many small bisque dolls in the 1920s and 1930s, often cold painted with oil colours, which have subsequently washed off.

Reproduction bisque doll making grew slowly as a hobby in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, expanding greatly during the 1970s and by about c. 1980 spreading to Europe, Great Britain, and Australia, via companies retailing moulds and supplies such as Seeley's and Wandke, which ran large scale networks of classes and seminars.

In the 1980s, bisque dolls had a revival with the growth of the collectors market, and towards the end of the 20th century, production began to move to China.

[1] China produced many inexpensive porcelain dolls sold in discount departments and chain stores, often decorator pieces.

Mass-produced porcelain dolls can still be found worldwide in bargain stores retailing goods from China.

[8] Unmarked dolls that can't be identified as coming from a specific manufacturer also fetch lower prices, but there are many exceptions.