This French fashion doll, 13 inches tall, came dressed in a blue and grey silk walking suit and brown boots and sold for the sale-high price of $2,950.
Review by Kiersten Busch
HILLSBOROUGH, N.H. — Advertised as a “sure cure for Cabin Fever” was Withington Auction’s April 2 online-only Dolls & Accessories at Auction sale, which offered 242 lots of dolls, toys, miniatures, fashion, vintage Christmas and various other antiques, including thimbles, Jumeau and Steiff. The sale was a white glove affair, selling 100 percent of lots, which were offered with no reserves.
The highest-selling lot of the day was a 13-inch-tall French fashion doll with a curly blonde mohair wig and blue glass paperweight eyes. The doll had wooden arms and wore a blue-gray walking suit and brown boots. After 26 bids back and forth, she sold for $2,950. Another French fashion doll, 16½ inches tall, changed hands for $448. It had blue glass eyes, a blonde horsehair wig and a silk white dress with purple trim.
The third-highest price of the day went to a hand-painted American oil cloth doll with painted and stitched hands and red striped cloth legs. She came with a cotton calico dress and matching bonnet but was only wearing one shoe. Despite the missing shoe, the doll, in played-with condition, was secured for $1,637 after 31 bids back and forth.
Three Jumeau dolls crossed the block for a range of prices, led by a 10-inch-tall model from 1907 with blue glass paperweight eyes, visible teeth, a blonde mohair wig and a pink silk and lace outfit, which realized $1,593. Next, for $826, was a Depose Tête Jumeau doll with a white and blue dress. Measuring 18 inches tall, the back of the doll’s neck was marked “Depose Tête Jumeau Bté S.G.D.G. 8” and had a blue Jumeau stamp on its compo body. Finally, a 1980 Jumeau artist’s doll by M. Mosser with brown glass eyes, a blonde mohair wig and a peach dress and bonnet earned $44.
Dollhouse furniture was led by this four-piece lot of antique Nineteenth Century Viennese Austrian hand-painted ormolu enameled furniture, 3 inches tall (chairs), 4½ inches and 7 inches wide (screens), which earned $1,626.
A small selection of doll furniture interested bidders, including a group of four antique Viennese Austrian pieces. This set of hand-painted ormolu enameled furniture and accessories topped off at $1,626. The group included two chairs and two three-section privacy screens, one of which was embedded with a clock in its center panel. The scenes on each piece of furniture included “fashionable ladies and gentlemen,” according to catalog notes, and were dated to the Nineteenth Century.
More doll furniture that found new homes, and new dollhouses, were a lot containing a circa 1920s hand-painted doll swing set by Eric Farham (West Harwich, Mass.) and a Victorian walnut and walnut burl bed with a mattress and pillow ($94), and a lot of assorted doll furniture, accessories and miniatures, including chairs, tables, rugs and kitchen items ($35).
It’s never too early to start preparing for the holiday season, and bidders certainly agreed when they bought up all six papier-mâché Santa figures on offer, which ranged in price from $202 for a Santa riding a donkey that was marked as from “Germany,” to $1,104 for a German Santa candy container. The latter was holding a Christmas tree in its right hand and a bag in its left, had a red snow-covered outfit and painted features with a long white beard.
One of the most unique finds in the auction was a Victorian enamel necklace made from 25 silver 3-shilling coins, which earned the second-highest price of the sale at $1,906. The coins, which were hand-painted in with blue and other colored enamels, contained three different views of Queen Victoria with different lettering around their edges.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.withingtonauction.com or 603-478-3232.
