HI, my friend bought these beautiful marionettes in San Francisco over 20 years ago for a good price..  They were purchased as collector's items.  They are both in very good condition.  The artist's signature is on the bottom of their shoes.  I cannot make out the name too clearly.  Each one is over 2 ft tall.  
I need some help to find artist and appraise them.  
Thank you,
Gigi
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Ok if I would have to guess it would be Janie Langlois that made these. I know nothing about her or these puppets but when I did a search on variations of the name I saw on the foot with the word marionette I came up with these links.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janie_Langlois
http://www.janielanglois.com/
It is possible that they where also the work of her husband Armand Langolis, although I think that he only did these with here. I am assuming it is his daughter
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Langlois

The wikipedia page does mention... "Several works were exhibited and sold in San Francisco from 1984 to 1992 by the gallery Lillian Williams , the famous collector of eighteenth-century French costumes." ... that fits with your story.

Sorry I can't give you any type of appraisal but perhaps this will help you in your search. The reference to Lillian Williams may help but all I could find was this. http://pictureofelegance.blogspot.com/2010/05/story-of-house.html

I'll go ahead and embed a couple of the images you uploaded to the gallery here. Perhaps others will recognize the puppets.

They really are quite beautiful creations.

Dear Shawn, you are most helpful.  thank you so much.   I will look into these links.

Gigi