Welcome to the Dollhouse

I’ve always been a collector. I started out with rocks. One time, on a family vacation, my mom picked up my suitcase and found it to be suspiciously heavy. That’s because I had removed all the clothes from my luggage and replaced with all the rocks I had picked up on our journey.

But my first real obsession was dolls. Not Barbies but old fashioned porcelain dolls. I had books about the different kinds of collectible dolls. My parents took me to a local Doll Hospital were we met a lady who fixed antique toys (and which was also a virtual museum of antique toys).

My interest started with a bisque, German made doll head that belonged to my grandma. I never really amassed a huge collection (I was a kid with limited funds) but I read everThe shoulderheads were often made by Armand Marseille in Germany, model 370. The bodies were made by Armand Marseille in Germany.

Later models had composite bodies. During WWI, Eatons stopped importing German heads and switched over to fully composite bodies. Over the decades there were times that they returned to bisque heads, switched to vinyl or rubber and Canadian and French suppliers, and sometimes ceased production entirely.

From 1977 to 1981 (the peak of my doll collecting years), Eaton Beauty Dolls were made by Toronto’s Dorothy Churchill, based on original Armand Marseille moulds. So while I have no need for anything, my subconscious need to get things I was denied as a child overwhelmed me. I traded some Hermès perfumes and now the doll is mine!