#we can have a conversation about the moral panic surrounding French fashion dolls later

[marzipanandminutiae]

WAIT WAIT GUYS SHUT UP

HAVE I ACTUALLY FOUND MLLE. FROU-FROU???

okay so Mlle. Frou-Frou was a doll raffled off in Boston in 1871 to benefit widows and orphans of the Franco-Prussian War. she had an elegant wardrobe and moral guardians lost their minds over her. or at least one did. writing for the New York Tribune- which is rich considering that NYC prided itself on being a free-thinking and cosmopolitan city, and Boston had a freaking official censorship board -the unknown journalist said:

Men and women surround the doll, three deep, and gloat upon the exhibition as they would gloat upon a fashionable “opening.” “Stunning!” exclaim the men. “Perfectly splendid!” exclaim the women; while the discontented few transfer their disgust of Frou-Frou to disgust of human beings who can countenance so flagrant an immorality; for anything that debases youth is immoral, and the child who falls heir to that doll cannot fail to learn more lessons in frivolity than can be unlearned in years. As the twig is bent the tree is inclined. Will the little miss be content to wear calico when her doll wears silk? Will she be satisfied with two or three dresses and one hat and one pair of boots when her doll has dozens? Will she wear cotton gloves when her doll scorns everything but Paris kid? Will she retain the simplicity of childhood when her doll is perpetually poisoning her eyes with a complete picture of the girl of the period? Children are so like monkeys in their imitative propensities as almost to lead one to believe in Darwin’s theory regarding the origin of species, and whoever would bring them up in the way they should go will as quickly open the front door to small-pox as to that breeder of moral disease, Mlle. Frou-Frou.

um. wow. over a charity raffle. earlier in the article they said that the doll would "do more harm to Boston than the money from it can ever do good to France."

cut to: Paris, which is literally under military siege and full of starving people

right

anyway, a doll came up for auction at Theriault's a few years ago with a trunk and clothes labeled "Mlle. Frou-Frou Boston" and "Frou-Frou Boston 1871." the doll in the article is described as made of wax (meaning the head) with a stuffed kid-leather body, and this one has a porcelain head. but it's possible that the writer wasn't well-informed as to the nature of dolls and didn't understand the difference

the article mentions twelve outfits where this doll has five, and more accessories are referenced in 1871 than she currently possesses. however...a lot happens over the centuries. a dress of pink moire with elaborate lace is mentioned, and while the skirt that the doll wears in the photo is a bronzy color, it IS adorned with lace and could potentially have faded from pink (I'd have to look at the seams to know for certain)

now, the other possibility is that the pieces in question belonged to Mlle Frou-Frou and were parted from her at some point, and this is a different doll to whose trousseau they came. it's difficult to imagine anyone breaking up the collection of such a fine doll, but children aren't as uncharitable as we imagine sometimes- things get traded and given away in the course of play

but most of the doll's undergarments are labeled with "Frou-Frou Boston 1871," and since it sounds like they fit this specific doll pretty well...

we may have found her at last