All Dolled Up : They May Be Made for Children, but They Have Become 2nd-Hottest Collectible in Country

Robin Woods was in town recently, signing her dolls at It’s A Zoo, a doll and stuffed-animal store on West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. Her signature and the date, written in permanent ink behind the doll’s left ear, enhances its value to collectors.

It was after hours, but doll owners streamed in, out of breath, hair awry, arms loaded with previously purchased Robin Woods dolls--Robertas, Lady Elaines and Christmas Courtneys, among others--in the original boxes.

At the back counter, Woods, seemingly relaxed despite a rushed promotional tour of the Southwest, chatted with each owner while she brushed the dolls’ wigs, tidying them after their rite of passage. Waiting in line, the women talked about their obsession.

“I say I’m collecting these for my daughter, but she’s only 3,” said Donna Morgan of Granada Hills, who was looking over the newest dolls with her mother. “Look at these clothes. They’re lined, hemmed, all finished. You really have to see other dolls’ clothes to compare.”

Customer Antonia Delgado was hidden behind four large baby dolls with full heads of fluffy hair and puffy, lace-trimmed dresses, but she managed to explain how she got hooked. “I began when someone bought me a doll at the Antique Guild as a gift.”

Celeste Sands, also a collector, laughed, embarrassed, and said she bought her first Robin Woods dolls only 13 months ago for her granddaughter’s eighth birthday.

“Now I have 125 of them,” she said. “It’s a real addiction. I’m a fanatic. I’ve even joined a doll club.”

While Woods signed her doll, Ramona Luckman examined Scarlett Sweetheart’s white dress, decorated with six layers of ruffles and 130 yards of white lace. “I can relate to this,” she said. “My prom dress had ruffles all the way down.”

A few years ago, news of Woods’ visit, if reported at all, would have been buried between the weather and the obituaries, unread by all but secret collectors, doll expert Jan Foulke said.

“They didn’t want other people to know they did it,” says Foulke, author of “The Blue Book of Dolls and Values,” the serious collector’s reference book of makers, dates and suggested prices. “After all, dolls are playthings and collectors thought other people would think it was silly.”

That was then. Now is different.

Dolls are still made for children. But, one suspects, just as many are created for those with the doll habit. Collectors of contemporary dolls (those made today) buy the new limited-edition dolls as soon as they’re available. Once manufacture is discontinued, their value skyrockets.

Chuck Gill, the spokesman for Hobby House Press, said: “Dolls are the second-hottest collectible in the country today. Stamps are first, and though coin collectors hate to admit it, coins have slipped to third.”

To get a feel for the hobby, one need only thumb through Doll Reader, Hobby House Press’ glossy national magazine for collectors. According to Gill, the magazine has a readership of 112,000, up from 80,000 two years ago.

Fatter than the weightiest personal computer magazine, Doll Reader is packed with color photo ads for Claras, Pollys and Larissas, pages of antique dolls made of wood, composition, cloth, wax and bisque and doll makers’ supplies--heads, eyes, arms and legs. It includes articles on history, values, identifying marks and preservation.

Doll Reader is proof that however much new dolls fascinate, most serious collectors eventually develop an interest in old dolls as well. If they are of a rare type and in fine condition, “antique” dolls (older than 75 years), such as the French dolls with bisque heads and kid leather bodies made by Jumeau and Bru, can pull down huge sums at auction.

Last February, a 1909 German Kammer & Reinhardt character doll, 21 inches tall with a bisque head and flowing auburn hair, sold for a record $169,576 at Sotheby’s in London.

That figure could be topped on Nov. 8 and 9, however, when the extensive Marianne Bodmer collection of dolls and toys is auctioned, also at Sotheby’s. The event has the doll world buzzing.

“This is really an exciting time,” said Dorothy Dixon, a doll scholar and researcher who will be in London watching the action and maybe even joining the bidding. “Everyone’s on the phone, trying to get reservations. Some of the dolls were taken on a world tour, so absolutely everyone’s going to be there.”

The high prices underscore a growing problem that makes it difficult to gather accurate data about the hobby, says Mark Slider at Hobby House Press. The better collectors are going underground, keeping a low profile, not joining doll clubs or encouraging publicity.

“When people pay that much, they don’t want other people to know about it,” says collector Winnie Langley, who is also going to London for the auction. “In this day and age they can’t afford to have their names in the paper.”

Those collectors who can’t afford to pay top dollar in London nonetheless find plenty of dolls for sale in the United States. In Southern California alone, doll and teddy bear shows are scheduled at least twice a month.

Southland collector Mari Andrus owns not only antique dolls--she has an antique Simon & Halbig doll with blond hair in a white dress and night cap--but collectible dolls (between 25 and 75 years old).

Her Ideal Shirley Temple dolls, made in about 1935, and her ABC Toy Co. composition doll, made for Christmas, 1930, are expensive but still available. Like many mothers with grown daughters, she found her interest sparked by her daughter’s dolls.

“I’ve been collecting for 20 years,” she says. “My daughter left home, I pulled down all her dolls from the rafters to clean them up, and I started to think about it. It’s fun to have the dolls around the house, and I’ve also met a lot of nice people.”

She has some dolls sitting on the furniture--with hats on to keep the dust off--but she keeps most of them in glass cabinets.

To learn more about doll collecting, Andrus began to repair damaged dolls. It showed her that the successful collectors are informed.

“You need a big library of reference books just to learn what’s out there,” she says. “You have to be knowledgeable to tell what’s original. There’s a lot of switching of heads and bodies going on, and people have a way of antiquing new materials. To get better prices, of course.”

For dozens of companies and doll artists, such as Robin Woods, Dolls by Pauline, Effanbee, Wendy Lawton, Alexander Doll Co. (maker of Madame Alexander dolls), modern dolls earn big money a different way.

Woods, whose Pittsburgh factory employs 115 workers stitching, ruffling and painting around the clock, will make 70,000 dolls this year. Though her company is only 6 years old, Woods already has won four “Doll of the Year” (DOTY) awards from Hobby House Press and is considered one of a number of up-and-coming doll artists.

This year she is again nominated for a DOTY, to be presented at Disney World’s giant doll show, the “World Showcase of Dolls,” at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center Nov. 28 through Dec. 3 in Orlando, Fla. Each major doll manufacturer, including Woods, will make and autograph a one-of-a-kind doll to be auctioned by Sotheby’s, along with other antique dolls and collectibles.

Woods, who has a master’s degree in comparative literature (many of her dolls are based on characters in books such as “Little Women” and “The Once and Future King”) and a Ph.D. in child development, is pleased, if a little surprised, by her success.

She’s also sensitive to the prestige of the collectors’ market--her 1989 Christmas Courtney doll is a limited edition of 2,000--but she insists that all her dolls are intended for children to play with.

And, indeed, the dolls’ heads are vinyl rather than porcelain, and the clothes can be taken off. The fabrics are velvet, lace, taffeta, satin and cotton prints that can be dry-cleaned or hand-washed. The wigs are made of Kaneklon in Korea; the lifelike hair holds a curl forever.

“They’re the only part not made in America,” Woods says.

And, like everything else about doll collecting, even the glue--which makes it almost impossible for mischievous siblings to yank the wigs off the heads--has its own story. Said Woods, as she pulled back the last doll’s hair and signed her name: “It’s No. 1492 glue, created by the 3M Corp. especially for us.”

Doll shows offer an opportunity to explore the world of doll collecting. Among the shows scheduled for November are:

Nov. 4: “Happy Dolling” at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3. One hundred dealers and collectors at 130 tables will show dolls, teddy bears, doll clothes, doll miniatures and toys and supplies for doll makers. Doll artist Alice Wollydt will be at the show.

Nov. 4-5: Antique & Collectors Doll, Teddy Bear and Miniature Show and Sale, Buena Park Mall, 8308 On the Mall, Buena Park. Free parking and admittance. Hours Nov. 4: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Nov. 5: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Nov. 11: The “California Doll Collectors’ Christmas Show,” Garden Grove Community Center, 11300 Stanford (at Euclid) St., Garden Grove, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $2.50, $1 for children under 12. Seventy dealers will show special and rare old dolls only, no reproductions or teddy bears. Elizabeth Mott, from the Knott’s Berry Farm Miniatures Museum, will be there, as will Helen Sieverling, the author and collector. Call (714) 528-0126.

Nov. 18: “Hello Dolly,” a show with 70 tables selling old and contemporary dolls, paper dolls, dolls clothes and miniatures, will be at the Veterans Memorial Building in Culver City from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, children $1.

Other doll shows are scheduled frequently in Southern California. Check Yesterday’s Treasures column in Saturday View section for shows throughout the year.