My Pinterst Board Doll Collection

You will enjoy these photos; check out my other boards, too. http://pinterest.com/etquest/doll-collection/

Memoir; Writing your Life Story: A Recipe Book

Memoir; Writing your Life Story: A Recipe Book: Good Morning! I am writing/compiling a recipe/craft/puzzle book to sell as a fundraiswer for my school club. We sponsor local charities, c...

Etrennes

From: Infoplease.com: (2 syl.). New-year's gifts are so called in France. Strenia, the Roman goddess, had the superintendence of new-year's gifts, which the Romans called strenæ. Tatius entered Rome on New-year's Day, and received from some augurs palms cut from the sacred grove, dedicated to the goddess Strenia. Having succeeded, he ordained that the 1st of January should be celebrated by gifts to be calledstrenæ, consisting of figs, dates, and honey; and that no word of ill omen should be uttered on that day Read more: Etrennes — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/etrennes.html#ixzz2HbrjIieK

More Portraits

Jointed, all wooden folk doll, painted features. Age unknown at this time.

Modern bisque, very good quality procelain, cloth body and wire armature. Clara from The Nutcracker. Gift of my mother.

Effanbee vinyl fashion doll; 1990s. Photo, Dino J. Milani.

Hong Kong Lili

Portraits of some of The Museum Residents

These are all faces of The Museum from our collection; my husband took most of the photos, and more of his work is at Milanipc.com. Thanks for looking.

Modern automaton, grey-eyed A & M 370 on Kid body, dressed by Dr. E, 1988 Hamilton Bru.

Brooch made by Dr. Ellen, M. Engelbreit inspired card, vintage beads, antique glass and buttons.

Modern Cody or Long-face Jumeau on ball-jointed body. Purchased in Galesburg, IL, many years ago. Costume assembled by Dr. E, afghan knitted by her mother.

Modern African doll, hand carved of wood.

Papier Mache Puppet from 1930s; perhaps WPA? <

Experts, Artists, Collectors

I tend to podner a lot, especially about dolls and collecting. I've read that artists are collectors, and I refer my readers to Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist for further elaboration. Collectors are artists; we collect selectively, often to create a pattern. Some artists like Dina Vierny, Joseph Cornell, and Rembrandt, literally collect, sometimes to find objects to create art, but sometimes just because they like other things, too.

There is an art to building a collection, to displaying it, arranging inventories, catloging, and hunting out and seeking. Marilyn Gelfman Karp says it more eloquently than I ever could, and she, incidentally, is an artists, art collector, and art professor. See her book, In Flagrante Collecto. What makes a collector an expert in her field? The Uniform Commerical code basically defines an merchant as an expert because of knowledge gained in an area, which knowledge is not exclusive to buying and selling a good or service. So, collectors, whether dealers or not, are often experts.

The trend I see in dolls, and some other collectible fields, is that expert usually means lots of money to buy high end, and knowledge of marketing and sales. I know plenty of great dealers and museum curators who know their product inside and out; many are collectors, some not. But, I throw out this idea as food for thought; I venture to guess that most experts in Leondardo da Vinci and his works do not own an actual Leonardo painthing, and most experts in Chaucer, Bronte, or other great author, do not own an original manuscript. Yet, they study what is available, read, visit museums and libraries, accumulate their own archives and libraries, and sometimes, their own collections. So does a doll collector; so it is possible to know, study, even handle the "high end" dols, without actually owning or buying/selling them. Too often "serious" collector means rich, and quality or high end means it cost over, say $5000. I disagree. I don't want to start something. I certainly don't want to bring down doll prices. But, I've heard very "high end" dealers complain about people who are collecting money, not dolls and who have lost track about the joys of a hobby, and researching it, and its history. I've articles in the same spirit by A. Glenn Mandeville about Keeping Dolls so MIB that we collect boxes, not dolls, and by R. Lane Herron redfining rarity, e.g., "Will the Rare Doll Please stand up?"

Happy Dolling. Even I, who have viewed/handled tens of thousands of dolls in my collecting history, will tell others to slow down, collect what they like and invest in CDs and IRAs, spend time taking stock, repairing, organizing, dressing, even making dolls. It isn't all about one upping someone on eBay. Happy New Year, and I'd like to hear your thoughts. Sorry in advance for typos. My arm is killing me.

New Pins to our Pinterest Board, Doll Collection

We have new pins to our board, Doll Collection, but check out our other boards, Holidays, Legal Study Books, Wonderful Books, Pets, Women's Apparel, Photography, and Erzebet and the Lady Vampyres! Happy 2013; May you find the doll of your dreams for your collections! And, also to our friends at Content 2 Antique Dolls page.