What sort of collector are you? We may all have more in common than we think.
While idly watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow the other evening, I realized that I have very little interest in antiques – in fact nothing created much before 1950 holds much fascination for me. But what I do find interesting lies more in the people and the valuations. In fact some years ago I made my closest friends promise that if they ever notice I’ve started wearing a monocle, affecting a British accent, and collecting antiques they are immediately to push me down the stairs. Oh, scratch the part about the British accent – I already have one of those – but the rest still applies.
It did, however, occur to me that there are broad similarities between collectors no matter why they collect. The same obsessions come in to play whether you are collecting naval insignia, cigarette cards, dolls, or the works of a particular artist.
For example I know someone with a magnificent collection of Victorian jewelry, an area in which I have little knowledge and even less interest. I would go as far as to say that most jewelry is virtually invisible to me. All but the biggest most eye-popping bauble will pass me by. A close friend once asked me if I noticed anything different. I ventured the tried and trusted routes of new hairstyle, different makeup, even fake tan. But it wasn’t until she literally shoved a gull’s egg-sized diamond ring in front of my face that I noticed it. This even though I knew that she had recently got engaged.
This means, of course, that I seldom think to add jewelry to any outfits my dolls are wearing. In fact I will only do it if I happen to have bought a whole outfit that includes jewels. Or maybe if I suddenly realize that an outfit is missing something I will notice that it needs a little sparkle. So my dolls are never going to be guilty of excessive bling. Although I do also subscribe to the Coco Chanel school of accessorizing, “When accessorizing always take off the last thing you put on.” With jewelry, especially, less is always more, and it’s a good idea to remove one piece from an outfit before your doll steps out of the door.
But I digress. My point is that there are many different ways of collecting no matter what your obsession. Some people are not satisfied until they have every single type of object available in their chosen field. For doll collectors this can have huge ramifications. Someone who embarks on a Barbie collection with this thought will need an aircraft hangar for display as well as very deep pockets. For some this might be an enjoyable part of the challenge – the virtual impossibility of ever completing a collection. The back-catalog is vast and is being continually added to. It’s not surprising that some choose a more realistic target, concentrating on one aspect of this doll, maybe only early vintage (enormous in range in itself), or mod era, or perhaps zoning in on one of the incidental characters in the range. For instance a complete collection of vintage Ken is likely to be attainable (and a little more affordable), in one person’s lifetime. As a supporting member of team Barbie, Ken had far fewer outfits and guises than the leading lady herself.
Other collectors might have more eclectic tastes. Perhaps they want to recapture their childhood in some way and look only for dolls of their youth, or maybe dolls they would have loved to have owned as a child, but for reasons of cost couldn’t aspire to until adulthood. I had to wait until I was earning cash of my own before I could get the Sasha dolls I longed for as a child. They seemed wildly expensive to my parents at the time to buy as a plaything. No longer produced, they are still pretty pricey on the secondary market – but these days I’m much less likely to drag them along the floor or lose one of their shoes down the drain.
Some collectors I know stick avidly to one type of doll, but from a wide range of manufacturers. Collectors of strictly 12-inch fashion dolls can encompass a huge variety of different models, and then there’s a further subdivision of vintage or modern. I know people who are mad for one particular type of Integrity Toys doll. Did someone mention Poppy Parker? And others who love Fashion Royalty but will cherry pick across the range and don’t feel the need to own every single doll ever produced by the company. Of course sticking to 12-inch tall dolls does have advantages in terms of space and storage. As soon as you move into the world of bigger dolls the room you need for display increases exponentially.
I prefer to concentrate on smaller sub-groups of dolls. I never tire of Milou, although some may tire of me writing about her all the time! She makes the perfect subject for a collection as she is a line consisting of merely one doll with a small but perfectly formed range of couture. Expensive but very limited in scale and so possibly achievable (in my dreams).
I know collectors who go for unusual European fashion dolls. France can be a good hunting ground for these with vintage fashion dolls like Mily GéGé and Caprice, or the right-on-trend modern dolls from Fashion Doll Agency, Paris. Eastern Europe can also be a great source for quirky, often quite cheaply made, mid-century fashion dolls.
Another thought is to concentrate on discontinued or very slowly growing lines. Two of my special favorites are the Lady Luminous range by Takara from the late 80s to early 90s – a perfect encapsulation of fashion at the time, and no more than a couple of dozen dolls were ever issued. They can be hard to find, but this is part of the challenge. I’m also keen on the 1940s vibe of Tonner’s Théâtre de la Mode collection, again not a huge number of dolls and new editions are not frequent.
Certain collectors will stick with celebrity dolls and can’t wait for a new version of Liz Taylor or Marilyn Monroe. Or maybe an interest might be linked to films or literature, I know some enthusiasts who will collect the many versions of Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.
But whatever your doll passion, we all share the collector’s gene (and I don’t mean Gene Marshall – she’s a whole other topic). It’s fascinating to see how collectors share similarities no mater what they collect. Now I must get back to watching those antiques on TV …
This POV feature first appeared in Fashion Doll Quarterly Magazine (FDQ), Spring 2014 issue.
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