We know more about the Jumeau firm than many other French doll companies, due to the publication of many 19th century articles about the company and the research of many scholars during the later 20th century. The Jumeau company first emerged as a partnership between Louis-Desire Belton and Pierre-Francois Jumeau in 1841. By 1845 Pierre Francois Jumeau was trading in his own right. Although the Jumeau firm rapidly won commendation, including medals at international exhibitions for the outstanding qualities of the dresses in which their dolls were presented, very few Jumeau dolls can be securely identified dating before the 1870s. In 1872 the company began to produce its own porcelain heads, which they also supplied to other dollmakers. By 1877 the first Bebes (or dolls in the image of a little girl) were produced. In 1878 the Jumeau company won the unprecedented honour of the Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition. The award was proudly advertised on the bodies, boxes, shoes and even the dress labels of the dolls. Jumeau won a number of other high awards including the prizes for the best dollmaker at both the Sydney (1879) and Melbourne (1880) International Exhibitions in Australia. The "Golden Age" of the Jumeau factory lasted for two decades from the late 1870s to the late 1890s, when the competition from German dolls sent the firm into financial difficulties. German dolls in the 1890s were cheaper than the French, but still well made and much loved by little girls, even if they were by no means as elegant or graceful in face or costume as the best Jumeau dolls. The Jumeau company became part of the French conglomerate the Societe Francaise de Fabrication des Bebes et Jouets. The S.F.B.J. still continued to use the Bebe Jumeau trademark throughout the 20th century, even producing dolls in the manner of Jumeau, although for purists these later dolls never matched the appeal of a "real" Bebe Jumeau. The most lovely of these later Bebe Jumeaus often bear a mould number "1907" inscribed on the back of their head which indicates that they were made after the 1899 amalgamation of with the S.F.B.J. 

This is the label inside the most commonly found box for the Bebe Jumeau, dating from the 1890s. Here she is praised as the "national doll" of France, who has contributed to the high reputation enjoyed by French exports around the world. She is described as "unique of her type" and "absolutely perfect" "unique en son genre et absolument parfait". Note the small engraving of the doll onthe box label.