JEANNE LANVIN (1867-1946) and Atelier d' ARMAND-ALBERT RATEA - Lot 35

JEANNE LANVIN (1867-1946) and Atelier d' ARMAND-ALBERT RATEAU (1882-1938) Circa 1920 Large display doll with painted plaster head, arms and legs, fabric body, resting on a square wooden base covered with wallpaper. She is dressed in a black silk taffeta dress with applications of black taffeta pieces embroidered with pearls on the sleeves, waist and front. Black silk pumps. Pleated cream silk crepe underskirt with weighted ribbons at back. The dress bears the yellow woven ivory claw: Jeanne Lanvin PARIS 22 Faubourg St Honoré, numbered bolduc under the claw and a second numbered bolduc on the other side of the skirt. Total height: 85 cm (Restoration to the nose, rare paint chips, two very small accidents to the taffeta at the waist, rare missing pearls). In addition to the famous furnishing of Jeanne Lanvin's private mansion on rue Barbet-de-Jouy, her collaboration with Armand-Albert Rateau led to the creation of the Lanvin-Décoration company, active from 1921 to 1925. In founding this company, Jeanne Lanvin added a decorative label to haute couture, in harmony with the style of her House. This led to two major achievements: the fitting-out of the Daunou theater in 1921, and the decoration and furnishing of the Lanvin-Décoration premises, located opposite the couture house's headquarters. The large display or window doll offered for sale is a direct reflection of this emblematic collaboration and its context. Three examples preserved in the Lanvin collection can be compared to this one, but do not bear witness to the Lanvin Rateau dialogue. To contextualize the place of presentation dolls within the House: Man Ray, photo of a Lanvin model wearing an evening gown in front of a mantelpiece surmounted by a plaster presentation doll also wearing a Jeanne Lanvin model, 1924. In Lanvin, by Dean L.Merceron, ed. Rizzoli New York, 2007.