My particular penchant is for the antique works of art pre 1900 or shortly thereafter.
My first collection was bought for the express purpose of opening my own shop. Becoming ill changed all that and 500 dolls went to live with others. I don't lament that because they saved me at a time that I really needed it.. Here are some pictures of a display I did for a Historical Society. I brought about 100 dolls and accessories and talked with the public about them all day.
I did many such displays for Historical Societies and after I became Historian I did more.
One of my favorite Museums to visit was the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum. The first time I visited, the dolls were not individually labelled. There were cards with numbers and if you had a particular question, you wrote down the number, went to the file and looked it up. There were a group of us that went to the Museum, all doll enthusiast online and we met to visit the Museum. I became the identification for the Museum. Each case that we would go to, I would tell them what the dolls were, the approx, year and any info on the company that made the doll. In those days I was a walking encyclopedia. I became kind of an oddity that day with the Museum Officials following me and quietly listening to what I was saying. I did not recognize all of them but I did recognize most of them.
We had such fun viewing the 9,000 dolls on display at any one time and I told them of the doll I had from a close friend of Mrs Strong.
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/margaret-woodbury-strong-and-the-making-of-the-strong-national-museum-of-play-the-strong/PQICXcY_ELWwIA?hl=en
The next doll Museum that I loved to visit was the Lightner Museum, a treasure trove of amazing antiques. Among the many displays in this wonderful Museum is a fantastic Doll Museum. This Museum is located in St Augustine, the oldest or one of the oldest (disputed by the fine folks In Pensacola, Fl) cities in America. It would do you well to spend a couple of days or more exploring this fair city and allow a half day for the Museum to see all of the displays to their full potential.
I loved the museum.
I hope that you have enjoyed visiting some of the dolls around the world with me and I thought that perhaps I should share my favorite doll with all of you. She is a 20 inch ABG or Alt Beck and Gottschalck shoulder head model on a kid body and she is marked 1278 DEP #9. She is the only doll of this model I have ever seen and although she is listed in the Cieslik German Doll Encyclopedia, they do not have a photo of her. I found her in the antique shop that I used to work in when I lived in California called "The Nice Twice Doll Shop" and she came to me from the son of the original owner. Her name was Mrs Hinz of K&H dolls of Santa Clara and this was one of her favorite dolls. She has her original dress that she does not wear due to fragility but has a wardrobe and cedar chest filled with goodies. Her name is Victoria and she was the sole bisque survivor from my first collection of 500 dolls. All of which were sold to care for me when I became ill in 2004. She has been with me for 31 years now.
Tje F(1830-1913). The hotel of happy r
