Each Friday, I answer readers’ questions about items they own, helping them with research on the history and directing them to resources to determine the value. What I’ve learned is that there is no quick way…
Category: Dolls
Two dummies were talking …
Posted in Dolls, and Performers
From afar, it looked as if the two dummies were talking to each other, carrying on a silent conversation that none of us auction-goers could hear. Maybe they were making fun of us in our…
The doll bed was in awful condition. It was dusty. It was dirty, and the ropes that once crisscrossed its bottom were busted, now only remnants. The bed still had its four wooden posts and…
Topsy Turvy black and white doll
Posted in Dolls
The auctioneer had a hard time getting someone – anyone – to bid on the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Several people had already bought what they considered the best of the dolls: Barbie and friends…
Doll memories that last forever
Posted in Dolls
The woman’s vision was as vivid as the day she walked into the museum in San Francisco and happened upon the room: “In the museum one of the rooms had a display of an antique…
Looking for objects of love
Posted in Dolls, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, jewelry, Photos, and Sewing
Young people in every generation think they were the first to discover love and romance when they get that first-time-all-is-right-with-the-world feeling. As they mature, they realize that they weren’t the first. People have been loving and living…
The stuff of our lives and what they reveal about us
Posted in collectibles, dishware, Dolls, furniture, Home, and Personal items
This woman surely loved dolls and stuffed animals. They were all over and under the tables, and stacked in plastic bags under trees at the side of her house. They gave the first inkling of…
My own menagerie of faceless dolls
Posted in Dolls
As I approached the box of ceramic cinnamon-colored dolls, a wave of déjà vu swept over me. It couldn’t be, I thought to myself. But there they were, nearly a dozen of the faceless Dominican…
The first thing I noticed about the smooth ceramic dolls on the glass shelf at the auction house were their brown gingerbread color and their blank faces. And that they were beautifully spotless. The eight…