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I might have just found my big Christmas gift this morning. Let me explain. When I was a little girl, an elderly friend of my mother's gave me this antique bisque doll which had been restored. Realizing how delicate the little doll was, I kept her on a shelf in my bedroom and didn't really play with her.
When I left for college, I stored her away with my other childhood memorabilia. And then my mother gave her to me about twenty years ago along with other belongings from my past. I stored her away in a guest room dresser until today when I was clearing out drawers for our upcoming move. I had forgotten she was there.
Since we are downsizing, I decided to sell her on Craigslist for $100. First, though, I decided to check on Ebay to see what these antique bisque dolls are going for, and wow, was I surprised. The prices of the recently sold dolls range from $500 to $8,000. So, forget the $100 bargain on Craigslist, everyone.
Meanwhile, I have contacted a doll collector in California to look at the photos and let me know if I have indeed found my early Christmas gift. (Cha-ching!)
Do you have a personal treasure stored away? Tell me about it in the comment box below.
What a beautiful doll!
ReplyDeleteI have a sad doll story. In 1955 my Aunt Marie took a three month trip to Europe, It was one of the first tours you could take after WWII, so she did what she could do best, she went shopping. She bought dolls for us in each country she visited. And they are beautiful. She found a boy and girl doll pair in Budapest which she had sent back to Indiana for us. The following week, the Hungarian Revolution began, I remember the family was worried about her safety, but by that time she was in Venice, which had not be destroyed by the war and she was enjoying herself again. She returned to Greensburg and the dolls were not there. They arrived 18 months later, with a letter, written in Hungarian of apology. What beautiful dolls they were, beautiful hair and charming faces. And I loved the way they smelled.
Mother found a very nice glass china cabinet and painted it white with new shelves for us to put our doll collection. Like you said, we didn't play with these dolls. About 20 years ago, AP (my mother) decided to use this cabinet as a storage place for her antique crystal, so she boxed up the dolls and put them in a closet for storage.
About 1996 when I was home for a week in the summer, I decided to look at everything in that closet and get rid of my 6 green bridesmaids dresses and dyed to match green shoes and much of my 1960s garb. I took everything out of the closet and was looking through all the boxes deciding what I wanted and what to donate. I found all the dolls had been boxed individually and marked. The Hungarian children, my most special and most beautiful dolls she had put in a plastic box with a tight lit. The plastic needed oxygen and when I opened the box there bodies and faces had shriveled and were caved in.
I told myself that all living things need oxygen and to remember always to give my things a place to breathe.