Sunday, December 14, 2008

Paperdolls


When I first started selling old stuff...I found a lady or maybe she found me, I forget, but she asked me to come to her home and look through some boxes of stuff she and her boyfriend had collected hoping to some day open a shop. She had a lot of boxes and all I could do was open them and take a peek inside since there was no room to really pull it out. Her friend was gone and she had gotten older and wanted to move closer to her family so she wanted me to buy everything. This was exciting and also frightening since I didn't know a lot about this stuff yet! But I took a chance and we agreed on a price and it took my husband and I 3 trips in our truck to get it all to our home. My living room was stacked! It took me weeks to go through all the boxes and inventory it all.

That was back in the early 1990's and I still have some things from that purchase! Recently I opened a box and it had some paper dolls from that lady. I know I had sold a lot of them, but I guess I just didn't finish, because there are quite a few of them in this box. Most are in very good condition...never used.

One of the ways I learned about antiques and collectibles was by need. When I bought something and I didn't know about it.. I would buy a book or several books and read and study until I thought I was able to price my items appropriately. (Book prices are rarely appropriate in my experience, but they are a starting point). What I enjoyed most was leaning about things and when they originated and how they developed into a collectible.

Paper dolls have been around for many years. I am not sure of the exact beginnings but I know in the 1800's they were in magazines and used for advertising. It was a way to get a toy for free. I had one that advertised Hood's Sarsaparilla once and it had clothes too. McCall's had paper dolls in there magazine for years and they were really collectible. Kids followed the story of those dolls every issue.

Some of the most popular ones were of movie stars like Kathrine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Dale Evens, Roy Rogers...many more.

Paper dolls are still very fun to play with...you can get reproductions of the old ones or you can choose new arrivals...I just saw one for Obama! I guess some little kids get into politics too!
I have listed a few of the paper dolls in my Vintage4u Shop and I will add more in time.

2 comments:

  1. What a cool post!!!!! I love vintage paper anything!

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  2. I loved paper dolls. I had the Bush family dolls, Princess Diana, and many other ones I can't remember...where did those go. Maybe they are in your attic! :)

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