Doll Museum: Press Release on October Issue Previewed by Antiqu...

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Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Some Results of Bonham's Auction of Rare Character...

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Melanie Maidenfern of Herb's Daughters Paper Dolls by Ellen T

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: This Just In!! Hot off the Pressses, but Photos to...

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: This Just In!! Hot off the Pressses, but Photos to...: More details soon, but this isn't even a French Doll!! From our Editor:   Doll Record Shattered!!! The only known example of Kam...

Thoughts on Doll Hierarchy; High End, Low End, In Between

A Variety of dolls from a contemorary collection

I admit I was a child prodigy when it came to dolls  :).  When I started to collect dolls, that's just what we did.  We collected dolls, all types of dolls.  Few specialized, not even into antique and modern, Barbie, Vintage, etc.  We had toy soldiers, but not the term "action figure", at least it wasn't widely used.  The books I read by Helen Young, The Complete Book of Doll Collecting, Clara Hallard Fawcett, Dolls: A New Guide for Collectors, Janet Pagter Johl's series, Eleanor St. George's books and others talked about all kinds of dolls.  Kimport dolls advertised folk dolls, craft dolls, antiques, costume dolls, historical figures, novelties, the panorama was endless.

Every collecton I visted, including Miss Bolin's, our principal's, set up at Eugene Field School [he was yet another doll collector], boasted old and new dolls, conteporary examples, foreign dolls, novelties, cloth dols, and more.

Old dolls were getting expensive, but many of the dolls we now consider antiques, well, weren't.  They were collectible.   I saw Brus and Jumeaux, and other French dolls sold for between $75.00 and $500.  China heads of all types were more desired, and we didn't call them high and low brow.  They, and the Parians, were the most expensive dolls in our Midwest corner of the country.

Composition dolls still sold from $2.00-4.00, with Shirley Temples selling for around $30.  These were composition examples 

Barbies, especially the early dolls, sold for a few cents to a dollar at yard sales.  Madame Alexanders were considered high priced, but they were plentiful. The 8in dolls ranged from $4.50-$7.50.  Effanbee and Vogue dolls were beautifully dressed, nad $10.00 was considered fairly expensive for a toy doll.  We didn't have the kinds of doll shows we have know till the early 70s in my area.

Somewhere around the early 70s, when Ralph's Antique Dolls used to come to our Antique Shows, prices began to rise for antique dolls.  Some dolls were hitting the $1000 mark to the great shock of many collectors.

When Pat Smith published her pioneering photo studies on modern dolls in the early 70s, the factions split into Antique Collectors and Modern Doll Collectors.  So, of course, the prices for modern dolls began to rise.  Johanna Gast Anderton then wrote her books on twentieth century dolls, and individual studies of various doll companies followed from other authors.  Price guides began to be published everywhere, and paper dolls, too got pricey.  The first work about them, by the way, was by R. Lane Herron, noted author, doll artist and columnist, but another auhor beat him to the publishers.

Yes, things got very competitive.  You couldn't find Mme. Alexnders by the late 70s; you had to wait months and special order them.  There was no Alexander website as there is now, and  you couldn't buy direct from the company.  My mom tried.

Doll artists flourished, but also charged high prices.  The mailorder "mint" dolls began to be produced, and by the elary 90s, QVC and other home shopping networks featured dolls.   More dolls were being created just to be colletibles.  Some authors began to boast doll collecting had reached the status of No. 1 US Hobby, beating out stamps and coins.

The word at the doll shows was that you couldn't buy a French doll for under $500.00.  By the late 80s, it was, you can't buy a "good doll" for under $1000.00.

It became popular to create reproductions of antiques, especially of French and German bisques.  Table after table appeared at doll shows, mixing with table after table of Cabbage Patch Kids in the early 80s, and then Beanies in the early 90s. 

By the early 2000s, Repros, CPKs and Beanies were disappearing, and falling out of favor.

According to some dealers, eBay and online auctions killed the vintage and modern doll market;there were so many for sale that the prices fell.   People who speculated in dolls, and who dealt on the secondary market were losing money.

Who set these prices?  Well, we did.  Collectors and Dealers.  Oh, and serious collector around 1987 came to mean "Dealer" or one who spends megabucks.  The title was not based on knowledge or passion. No offense intended to my many dealer friends who are experts and do no their stuff.

Yet, think about it, experts in Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, or Rembrandt may not own original works of art by these masters.  Archaeologists who spend their lives studying prehistoric and ancient artifacts and architecture probably don't own originals, either.

About 5 years ago, I first heard the term "high end" dolls.  I suppose these are dolls way over $1000, with many at $10,000 and up.  I have to wonder what low end dolls are?  Advice was to specialize and invest, at least until the recent recession and economic crises of 2008 when a lot of doll business went under and many doll museums closed.  A lot of the local dealers were telling me dolls were out, and that they couldn't make any money from them.

Collectors of long standing kept doing their thing; when it came time to auction their dolls, history was made, with the time honored Theriault's aucting an A. Marque for $300,000.00 in Feburary, thereby breaking all records for an antique doll.

Then, I've noticed prices for all dolls, outside of the rarities like Marque, either falling, or staying about the same.  The dolls that sold between $1000 and $5000 are still in that price range.  I've seen some vintage hard plastics in excellent condition bring very good prices, but others held their own.   While many antiques did hold their value, in my area, not too many gained in price.

I had to wonder if we were pricing ourselves  out of the market.  Stamps and coins have record values, too,  but there are plenty of examples that are reasonalbe, and people trade back  and forth.  The veteran collectors in my local stamp club don't own a $14 million dollar stamps, and they sell stamps for 10-40% of their value.  Their thing is to share knowledge and recruit new collectors.

The trouble with antique dolls, is that even those who have collected their whole lives have given up on them, and don't collect them anymore. Artists who use old doll parts to create assemblage art have given antiques new life, but if the parts get too expensive, they, too, will come up with other media.

I hate to think that my dolls would become too expensive for  me to keep and enjoy, though of course, if I had to sell, I'd want a decent return on my investment. Yet, I also know if I sold them for $1.00 each, I'd still have a decent return just because of the size of the collection.

Yet, the market bears what it will bear.  I don't want anyone to go out of business, either.

Maybe what is bothering me is that the "high end" has been interpreted to mean money makes the collector.  This only creates doll snobbery, and doll history is lost amid the alphabet soup of doll marks and patent numbers.  Sometimes, we don't look at the whole doll at all.

Stuart Holbrook of Theriault's wrote a brilliant post a few months ago on why it is better not to be a doll snob.  He, and the folks at Theriault's, get it.  They sell dolls in all price ranges at the different auctions, and they appreciate doll scholarship and history.  Their website is full of opportunities for research and study.  So are the sites for Antique Doll Collector Magazine, Kaylee's Corner,  Doll Collecting at About.com, Ruby Lane, UFDC, Doll Castle News,  Doll Shops United, Content/Antique Doll Collector Website, Doll Kind, this blog, my other blogs, and more.

What makes you a high end collector has to do with your passion for the hobby, your scholarship of doll history, your willingness to curate history, and your knowledge of all types of dolls and their provenance.  Happy collecting, but we are all high end collectors, and we should promote this wonderful hobby, and recruit new members.  We should teach value and conservatorship, but also doll education and appreciation.  I'll get off my miniature soap box now, and wish everyone Happy Collecting!

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Have you Seen These Stolen Dolls?

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Doll Museum: The 19th c. Continued; Wax dolls

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Gurley candles bring a nostalgic feel to the holidays | The Herald-Dispatch

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Antique Doll Collector Magazine: More to Come for Doll Lovers and Lovers of Antique...

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Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Vintage Dolls Featured at Theriault's Recent Rende...

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Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Charlotte, the Original "Frozen" Doll

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Doll Parts are More than Parts!

Dolls from an Estate ; some now in my collection

I have to thank my friend Michelle, who rescued a box of vintage magic skin and composition babies for me. They came in pieces, poor Patsy and Ideal Tickle Toes, and a little Alexander baby, all naked and forlorn.  Their eyes were cloudy, the magic skin, well "cooked" brown ad Michelle put it.  They came home, and through the miracle of surgical tape and windex gently applied, they began to take shape.  We still need an arm or leg here, but everyone is dressed, and Patsy stands next to an aritst rendition of Circle Dot Bru and near an antique Chiense dolls.  Our magic skin boy proudly wears a baby Cubs outfit, and a lovely little girl from Ideal with a hardplastic hed wears diapaers, a lacy dress, and little hiwte shoes.  Lavender doll sunglasses hide her cloudy eyes.  The other babies where vintage clothes, and the little Alexander has her won batiste christening dress and bonnet. Doll collecting brings out, yet again, the best in friendship and dolls.  Doll parts, far from being creepy, are the stanzas we use to create poems of rescued and refurbished dolls.

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Q and A with Donna Kaonis, the Editor of Antique D...

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New Alexander Ada Lovelace

See below: This fully articulated 10" classic Cissette doll is dressed as the famous Ada Lovelace, mid 19th c. founder of scientific computing, noted female mathematician and credited as the first computer programmer. With brown hair styled in a fashionable up 'do, she is wearing a full skirted Victorian gown of lavender, iridescent taffeta and elbow length, puffed sleeves trimmed in black lace. White mesh, elbow length fingerless gloves, a lace-trimmed white petticoat, white tights, lavender pumps and drop earrings fill out this ensemble, topped off with a lovely headdress of yellow organza ribbons entwined with flowers, a black feather and lace. Ada carries a diagram of the calculating engine that made her so famous. SKU 68190. The Collection Doll, ages 14+ https://www.madamealexander.com/the-collection-dolls/collectible-women-of-history-dolls/ada-lovelace-woman-in-history-doll.html?utm_campaign=Blog+Updates&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=14158548&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--mtvs5xCjnhnbVLeTtN8ncAMVJNzdVqu2Q-bEgf64M9RandILTsEMO9QKNWVz-8-pDoTSdAlifLoXLQsQEqykmtnav5g&_hsmi=14158548#.VBidLuoo7IU

Doll Museum: In its Own Words: Antique Doll Collector Magazine ...

Doll Museum: In its Own Words: Antique Doll Collector Magazine ...: Two spectacular collections will be featured at the upcoming Frasher Doll Auction November 1 in Kansas City, Missouri. The estate of the la...

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Vintage AKA Antique Dolls About to Happen!

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Vintage AKA Antique Dolls About to Happen!: Soon, antique dolls of all types will be closer than you think! Collectible and vintage dolls from the 1930s and 1940s are approaching the ...

Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Vintage AKA Antique Dolls About to Happen!

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Antique Doll Collector Magazine: Welcome to our First Post- For the Love of Antique...

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September 11, 2013

Once again, we are forced to remember a grim holiday no one wanted, and yet, how can we forget? As I played bridge prisoner today and navigated a screw up that makes Gov. Chris Christie's issue in New Jersey seen like an amuseument park ride, I couldn't help but thin that I was going to work, like the nearly 3000 people massacred that day. Only going to work. Such a simple, innane act that became deadly. I can't bear to think of those people in the planes, clutching their purses, and carryon bags, and boarding passes. Thinking about making connections, planning the rest of the day, not realizing their were boarding flights into eternity. I show my classes images of that day, where we all sat 13 years ago studying Faust and Moby Dick, with no idea of what would happen. It is now 22 mins. after the first plane hit the world trade center. The eeriness of the silent skies that day still deafens me, when no planes where flying, the first time in my life I can remember something like that. They had been grounded after the attacks, and only Airforce I could fly over head. I saw fighter jets on news footage escorting innocent planes and their pilots to our local airports. Chilling, to say the least. I think of the woman who used to work across the street who was there that day, and of my colleauges who sat next to me on 9/11/2001 trembling because they had family at The World Trade Center and at The Pentagon. Thankfully, they were found safe. But, the 27 year old brother of one of my colleauges was not safe; he was killed in one of the Twin Towers. The people my cousing was talking to at Cantor Fitzgerald simply disappeare; the line went dead, and they all belonged to the ages after that. He still can't forget it; one second he was talking to someone, and in an instant, they were gone. Our headquarters are a block away from Ground Zero; people were frantically trying to exchange calls, some that said "are you ok?" and finally, the ones that said, "we're fine, devastated, but we are fine." How can we forget? Or blame ourselves for an act that was so evil and cruel? With Bengazi to add to the legacy of pain, how can we not live in fear? Yet, here we are at our jobs. Email works, the phones are ringing. Stores are open, people are travelling. May we all get through this day, and may it only be a terrible, tragic memory in the future. God Bless all of us, and God Bless The United States.

Theriault's, Antique Doll Collector, and Thinking Outisde the Doll House

Soon, I hope to create another Facebook page dealing with my book on metal dolls, "With Love from Tin Lizzie . . " and my other books. For many of us, social media is the new wave in collecting, both for finding dolls, and for sharing information. More and more magazines are going online and publishing entire articles. eBay and other online auctions have their own articles and mags, and some also feature picture boards similar to Pinterest. Some interesing events are coming up: Rendezvous: Monday Night at the Auctions by Theriault's (86) Monday, September 15 | 7:00 PM Eastern Annapolis, MD Join in the fun - onsite, online, absentee bidding, or live telephone bidding available. Visit www.theriaults.com. Other upcoming event include the Maquoqueta Eastern Iowa Doll Show, Septmeber 14th at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, Maquoqueta, IA. Iowa Comicon, September 21st, Clairon Hotel, Quad Cities. More great doll events can be found on the website of Antique Doll Collector. This is a wonderful, colorful, and informative magazine for those who love antique dolls. Their Sepember cover features a very rare Kamner and Reinhardt 108, the only one known. This doll and other super rare German dolls will be featured at the September 24th auction at Bonham's, London.

Scenes from a Doll Show

Last month, I was able to attend a doll show I hadn't been two in over two years. I used to go regularly, since the late 70s. I found it in a new location, very nicely done, but with about 1/4 the dealers that used to be there. It has made me ponder the state of doll shows at my site DollCollectiong@about.com. Still, doll shows are wonderful. I love actually being there for "the thrill of the hunt." I get to talk to many people I've known for years, and there are a lot of memories that live there for me. My mom loved the doll shows, and we used to go all the time. If I couldn't go, she would go for me. So, here are some photos my husband took at the show. I hope that you enjoy them. There will be more photos on my blog Doll Museu; dollmuseum.blogspot.com.

Howard Gerstein

Howard Gerstein -  a tribute to a dear friend, and a wonderful man I have known since I was five years old.