Different Types of Antique Dolls

Collecting antique dolls is a very popular hobby. Many people enjoy coming across these valuable antiques and displaying them in their homes to show off to all of their friends. For others, buying and selling antique dolls is a business. This may be surprising, but many of these antiques are so rare and valuable they can cost over twenty thousand dollars. Antique doll collecting is a hobby which one must be very dedicated to and financially secure in order to do well in. Finding the right places to go for these antiques and being able to afford them is very time consuming and pricey.

Any doll that was created before 1930 is technically considered an antique. Of course, the older the antique dolls are, the more valuable they become. It is extraordinarily rare to find many of these dolls in their original wigs, garments, and attire, so if you do find one that is a complete original, that makes it worth even more.  Typically, when people do collect antique dolls, they have a particular style of doll they focus on in their collecting.

There are a number of different styles of dolls that are considered antiques. The oldest and most expensive of these dolls are the early dolls which look like little adults and are from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. These antique dolls are extremely rare because they are from so long ago and not that many were created in the first place. Typically, these antique dolls were created in England by a craftsman who fashioned the dolls out of wood and then painted on the features himself.  The craftsman also costumed these antique dolls in original garments that were made by hand. It is extremely rare to find these dolls in mint condition and early dolls that are in mind condition cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Even dolls like these which are battered and not in their original garments are extraordinarily expensive.

The papier mache antique dolls began being made in the early 19th century and continued through the 20th century. These antique dolls were made of a paper pulp which was cheap and easy to mass produce. The majority of them have black hair, a child’s body, and wooden limbs. Because of this, these dolls began being mass produced in the United States, France, and Germany. These antique dolls are much cheaper and also much easier to come across, but they are still valuable collectors’ items. They usually cost anywhere from five hundred to two thousand dollars.

Another type of antiques dolls are the wax dolls which began in the late 1700’s and continued being made throughout the 19th century. These dolls’ heads and limbs are typically made of wax which was poured into a mold or molded over papier mache, while their bodies are usually cloth based. These dolls will typically cost doll collectors about one thousand to two thousand dollars.

These three types of antique dolls are the most popular forms of dolls collectors look for. It is very improbable any doll collector has a large collection of early wooden dolls, but not impossible for them to have a decent amount of papier mache dolls or wax dolls. Coming across any of these dolls in mint condition is a rare and exciting event which doll collectors live for.

Source : 
 http://collectdolls.about.com/library/weekly/aa032799.htm

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