What will I do About Mother's Dolls?

TLC Doll Shop

What will I do about Mother’s dolls?

I have Mother’s clothes sorted and packed. Her favourite photos are in a box. The furniture and linen has been sent off to the grandchildren in their first apartment and the china to my younger sister. My older sister and my brother have chosen some of their favourite antiques that will blend into their homes and lifestyles. I sit on the bottom step and survey the situation. With a certain feeling of despair I realize no one has expressed much interest in Mother’s dolls. What will I do about Mother’s dolls?

If you are reading this article, you may be one small step closer to some possible answers to the question.

The first thing you need to do is rid yourself of any feeling of sentiment or obligation to keep the doll collection intact. If your mother did not leave an itemized inventory and make her wishes for disposal of the dolls known, she had no expectations in that regard.

Before you speak with anyone about the collection consider what you know about your mother’s doll collection.

1. Are the dolls your mother or grandmother’s childhood playthings?

2. Did your mother begin collecting dolls prior to 1970?

3. Did she attend doll shows and auctions?

4. Did your mother belong to a doll club?

5. Was she a world traveler who brought dolls home from the countries she visited?

6. Did the dolls come from a local doll shop?

7. Did she go to garage sales on the weekends and buy dolls to fix up?

8. Did she watch one of the televised shopping networks and purchase the dolls via telephone?

If you answered yes to any of the first six questions, you may need to seek the services of a professional doll dealer to have the dolls evaluated and appraised. Dolls are a very specialized area of collecting and as such, only a dealer who specializes in dolls can help you accurately identify and appraise your mother’s collection. General antiques dealers and local auction houses are not specialists in dolls. Relying on their estimates and identification is a bit like asking the doctor’s mother for a medical opinion.

If you answered yes to either of the last two questions, you may be looking at a collection (some would say an accumulation) that can be disposed of at a local auction house or a local charity thrift shop. If you gasp at the very thought of donating mother’s dolls to a thrift shop, consider where she got them, the small amount she had invested in them and the great pleasure that she derived from them. Through a thrift shop or church sale, the dolls can bring further pleasure to another person.

Before you arrange for appraisal or disposal of your mother’s doll collection, ask your family members one last time if there are any dolls that they would like to keep. To avoid confusion, or family strife, the dolls should be chosen on a strictly sentimental basis, before any evaluation or appraisal is undertaken. Tag the chosen dolls accordingly for later dispersal.

If you determine that you need an evaluation of the collection, go to www.NADDA.org , the web site for the National Antique Doll Dealers Association. Through their membership list you may be able to find a member dealer in your local area. Alternately, you may have found receipts in your mother’s papers indicating the name of a dealer from whom she purchased dolls. If your mother belonged to a doll club, they may be able to recommend a dealer to help. A doll club member is not the appropriate person to do the appraisal. You should expect to pay a fee for both the initial evaluation and for any further appraisal conducted on site. This fee should be determined before any meeting takes place. The initial fee will be based on the size of the collection and the distance the dealer needs to travel to see it. In many cases, NADDA member dealers will give you an initial evaluation and recommendation from good digital pictures sent via email.

There are several very important reasons for selecting a NADDA member dealer to assist you at this juncture. Most importantly, they are specialists in antique and vintage dolls. Secondly they are actively buying and selling dolls every week, if not every day. In most cases they will be able to readily identify the dolls and their attributes. In the instances when they might be stumped for identification, they have a network of fellow member dealers to call. Through their experience with shows and auction reports from around the country, they are the most capable of telling you the current value of a doll. Doll values fluctuate from year to year and desirability varies from one region to another. Values are dependant on the rarity, originality, quality and condition of the dolls in the collection. Many NADDA members are certified doll judges with years of experience. They have agreed to a strict old-fashioned Code of Ethics which offers collectors and their family members a measure of assurance not commonly found when dealing in the world of general antiques.

There are several price guides available at large book stores or from various web sites. The most highly respected of these guides is Jan Foulke’s Guide to Dolls. Should you decide to undertake identifying and pricing the dolls in your mother’s collection on your own, be certain that you read and understand the preface to this book. Used correctly, it is the most valuable guide available. Used incorrectly, it will be a source of confusion and frustration. It is not realistic to believe that a doll collection can be accurately identified and appraised by a non-doll collector. Should you have access to Jan Foulke’s Guide to Dolls, a NADDA member is the most reliable person to instruct you on its use.

Once you have the doll collection appraised and any dolls for family members have been dispersed, you have another decision to make. Which is the most appropriate way to dispose of the dolls? If you wish to memorialize your mother, you may elect to donate the doll collection to the United Federation of Doll Clubs doll museum in Kansas City or to a local historical museum in your area. Be aware that not all museums accept donations of dolls and those that do, will not accept the collection encumbered by any conditions.

You may decide that sale of the collection is more suitable for your family. If sale of the doll collection is your choice, the ideal solution is to sell the entire collection to one dealer. A professional doll dealer will offer you a percentage of the retail value of the collection, depending on the condition of the dolls and the amount of work they feel is required to prepare them for sale. In return, you will have your money quickly and the dealer will take on the responsibility of packing and shipping the dolls. You are relieved of the responsibility of insurance, storage, cleaning, restoration and repair, packing, traveling with the dolls, the expense of placing ads in newspapers and magazines, dealing with the response to the ads, correspondence and email, seeking sales venues and contending with the public treating your mother’s belonging with less respect than you would like to see.

Should you be fortunate enough to receive an offer from the NADDA dealer you call to appraise the collection, give it very serious consideration. Ten years ago, you could have called ten dealers and received offers from them all. It was a seller’s market. Today, due to recession and attrition, there are many fine collections available every month. It has become a buyer’s market. Collectors know they can wait and pick and chose because there are currently many dolls on the market. Conversely, professional dealers continue to buy dolls to replenish their inventory.

"What should I do about Mother’s dolls?" is a very sensitive question. As a doll collector and grandmother, I have made certain my family will not have to ask that question. Doll collecting is a non-transferable hobby. Children should feel no guilt over a lack of knowledge or appreciation of Mother’s collection. Prudent and appropriate disposal of the collection to bring pleasure to others of a like mind is a way of showing respect for your mother and the dolls she loved.

-Author, Lynn Murray, is a third generation doll collector, a certified doll judge, Past President of United Federation of Doll Clubs, Inc. and a member of the National Antique Doll Dealers Association.

Send mail to TLCdollshop@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2006 TLC Doll Shop

Send mail to TLCdollshop@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 TLC Doll Shop