CLIPBOARD : THE SWEET DOLL SHOPPE

It is usually among a girl’s first toys--a doll of her very own. But while the young girls are naming and fretting over them, older women are buying and selling them as collector pieces.

At the Sweet Doll Shoppe, which opened six years ago in the old town area of Brea, a wide variety of collector dolls are bought and sold. Shop owner Billie Sweet says she “has hundreds and hundreds” of dolls available.

If someone is looking for a specific doll to round out her collection, Sweet says she can track that down as well.

“I’ve studied old dolls for years, and just love them,” Sweet said.

Prices at the shop for the dolls range from $5 to $650, according to Sweet.

The oldest doll currently in the shop is an 1889 china doll with a glazed face.

“She’s a beauty,” Sweet said. “She has a green dress on and has that black, black hair.”

The most common materials used for dolls available in the store are composition and hard plastic, according to Sweet.

Composition is a mixture of sawdust, starch and resin, and dolls made of this material can deteriorate. Hard plastic dolls are solid-feeling and very durable.

Sweet also carries several old bisque-headed dolls from Germany and France. Bisque is a flesh-tinted unglazed china that was used extensively around the turn of the century to make dolls’ heads .

The most popular collector dolls are the Little Women dolls from the Madame Alexander Co., as well as the Effanbee dolls from the 1940s, according to Sweet.

The Madame Alexander Co. began in 1923 and has produced hundreds of dolls, many of which have been displayed in museums because of their beauty and attention to detail. There are character dolls such as Little Bo Beep and Scarlett O’Hara, as well as international dolls dressed in their native costumes.

Effanbee, founded in 1910, is well-known for its baby dolls known as Patsy and her family, which are considered to be among the most beautiful in the world. They also did several sets of Historical Dolls, beginning in 1939.

“People like the Effanbee dolls because they are affordable,” Sweet said.

Sweet also offers twice-weekly classes in doll-making, china-painting and lace-draping. Classes are $5 for each three-hour session.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days (call first to make sure she is in).

Address: 137 S. Brea Blvd., Brea

Telephone: (714) 990-0195