RARE JAPANESE DOLLS DISPLAYED AT MUSEUM

A miniature Imperial Palace exhibit that appeared at the Japan Expo in Tokyo in 1896--complete with dolls resembling Emperor Meiji, the royal family and the Imperial guards--is among the rarest collector’s items featured at Bea DeArmond’s Doll & Toy Museum in Anaheim.

Also among the lifelike treasures that DeArmond, 72, has been collecting since she was a young girl are a hand-carved wooden doll made in England in 1723 and nicknamed “Lady Longfingers”; a life-sized, turn-of-the-century German “baby doll” dressed in a Christening gown, and a delicate porcelain “Bye-Lo Baby” doll made in Germany in 1923.

DeArmond’s collection of rare antique dolls from around the world can be seen weekdays and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., at Hobby City, 1238 S. Beach Blvd., Anaheim.