Armand Marseille
Armand Marseille started the company in 1865 but did not start making dolls until around 1885. They were situated in Koppelsdorf, in the Thuringia region of Germany. The majority of antique dolls today were made by Armand Marseille. They produced dolls for over 30 years and the majority are the dolly faced child dolls, babies and toddlers but they are also renowned for fine character dolls, lady dolls and googly dolls. The dolls are usually marked on the back of the neck with the word Armand Marseille, the mold number and the word Germany. Sometimes they have the initials AM instead of the word Armand Marseille and other times they may have both.
In the peak of their production they produced over 1,000 doll heads per day. The company finished producing the dolls around 1930.Armand Marseille dolls were produced from roughly 1885 until approximately 1930. About The Armand Marseille Doll Company: Located in Koppelsdorf, in the Thuringia region of Germany, the Armand Marseille doll company was at the heart of the German dollmaking revolution in the 1890s. For the majority of the time it was Armand Marseille Jr. who was the head of the company.
Armand Marseille dolls come in a variety of sizes. They also made Doll Heads for other companies. The bodies of Armand Marseille dolls are often made in what is known as composition but others were made of kid.
Some of the very large dolls, googlies and lady dolls can fetch thousands of dollars.