Description: Antique dolls remain a secure investment area and this book reveals not only the basic prices but how current collecting fashions influence the popularity of specific types. From early carved woodens to the mass-produced celluloids of the 1930s, the book deals with over 500 typical examples and assesses their value from the standpoint of a collector. Children have played with dolls since the beginning of civilisation and by the seventeenth century there were commercial doll makers and costumiers. Small versions, for adult curiosity cabinets, were made to the highest standards, while roughly turned woodens served the needs of ordinary children. It was in the nineteenth century that the widest range of dolls was produced and the great German and French industries were established. As European collectors are most interested in this period, the book concentrates mainly on dolls made between 1800 and 1940 and discusses their construction, manufacture and idiosyncrasies. Prices are not based on a single auction realisation but are assessed from long term trends. giving authority to a text compiled by an established and widely read expert on the subject.

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