ANNAPOLIS, MD. – An early English wooden doll, who has survived with her extensive trousseau since the early Eighteenth Century, achieved what a representative for Theriault’s thought might be a record price for an early English wooden doll; it sold for $287,500, well ahead of its $30/40,000 estimate. It was the top lot in the firm’s May 15-16 sale.

The doll was a known entity, having once been in the collection of the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art; it had also been published in Rosalie Whyel and Jill Gorman, The Heart of the Tree, Early Wooden Dolls to the 1850s. Noted elements of the doll included its 29-inch size, which the catalog described as regal, all-wooden doll with unique sculpting, one-piece head and torso, and extensive trousseau of 12 gowns that suggested she had originally been commissioned for an aristocratic estate.

A more extensive sale recap will follow in a future issue.