Collectible Dolls Price Guides Reference Books Collector Doll

Blue Book Dolls and Values, 16th Ed

The first, favorite, and most trusted price guide for all types of dolls is more colorful and reader-friendly in its 16th edition. It is organized into an "Antique" section and "Modern" section. The Antique section covers the manufacturers of bisque, china, wax, wood, cloth, and papier-mâché dolls from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The "Modern" section covers the doll artists and makers of composition, hard plastic, vinyl and more. The 16th Blue Book features an easy-to-use index arranged alphabetically by manufacturer and has over 500 photographs - all in color!

This reliable and authoritative doll price guide has been chosen by collectors as the #1 price guide they trust and have used for 30 years. The Blue Book is considered the "bible" with collectors and is the one doll book that is used whether you have one doll or an entire collection of antique or contemporary dolls.

This is the one book that doll collectors cannot live without!

The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book

The Handbook of Doll Repair and Restoration

The Handbook of Doll Repair and Restoration was a first when it was published in 1979. It is still a first--in its completeness and detail. This is a responsible book, subscribing to the view of true doll collectors: Do nothing to an antique doll that will compromise the authenticity and reduce its value. Whether a doll is a museum rarity, one of many common antique dolls, or a collectible, Marty Westfall's book will lead you through procedures to restore it. The exquisitely detailed step-by-step directions make it possible for collectors, dealers, even those who own just one or two treasured dolls, to make necessary repairs without reducing value.

The techniques that author Marty Westfall used from 1973 to 1979 and set down in this book are just as practical today. Her aim was to help the beginning restoration artist, and the information is just as valuable to even the most sophisticated collector. In easy-to-follow directions The Handbook describes how to set stationary and sleep eyes, restring compo bodies, refurbish old wigs and make new ones, repair ball-jointed bodies, clean and repair kid bodies, make cloth bodies, mend chips and cracks, replace missing fingers and toes, and cope with other damages. The Handbook encourages those who wish to learn the art by taking them by the hand and showing them how to get started. At the back of the book is an updated list of suppliers for those who lack ready access to sources of repair materials. Other helpful information includes a chapter on how to distinguish between a legitimate replica doll and a fake made with the intention to deceive and another on how to determine whether a doll has been mended, even if the repair is so skillfully done that it is not readily apparent.

Thousands who began using this book as a guide have gone on to develop profitable careers in the restoration field. The same procedures to restore dolls work in restoring other porcelain objet d'arts, such as figurines. Many who began as doll makers have combined their creative art with restoring antique dolls. By learning the techniques in The Handbook, they have improved their skills in creating the valuable antique dolls of tomorrow.

Barbie the First 30 Years, 1959 Through 1989 and Beyond: Identification & Value Guide

The name Jan Foulke is synonymous with accurate information. As the author of the Blue Book of Dolls & Values, she is the most quoted source on doll information and the most respected and recognized authority on dolls and doll prices in the world.

Jan and her husband, Howard, who photographs the dolls presented in the Blue Book, were both fond of antiquing as a hobby, and in 1972 they decided to open a small antique shop of their own. The interest of their daughter, Beth, in dolls sparked their curiosity about the history of old dolls-an interest that quite naturally grew out of their love of heirlooms. The stock in their antique shop gradually changed and evolved into an antique doll shop.

Early in the development of their antique doll shop, Jan and Howard realized that there was a critical need for an accurate and reliable doll identification and price guide resource. In the early 1970s, the Foulkes teamed up with Hobby House Press to produce (along with Thelma Bateman) the first Blue Book of Dolls & Values, originally published in 1974. Since that time, the Foulkes have exclusively authored and illustrated the thirteen successive editions, and today the Blue Book is regarded by collectors and dealers as the definitive source for doll prices and values.

Jan and Howard Foulke now dedicate all of their professional time to the world of dolls: writing and illustrating books and articles, appraising collections, lecturing on antique dolls, acting as consultants to museums, action houses and major collectors, and selling dolls by mail order, the internet, and exhibits at major shows throughout the United States. Mrs. Foulke is a member of the United Federation of Doll Clubs, Doll Collectors of America, and the National Antique Doll Dealers Association. Her biography appears in Who's Who in the East.

Mrs. Foulke has appeared on numerous television talk shows and is often quoted in newspaper and magazine articles as the ultimate source for doll pricing and trends in collecting. Both USA Today and The Washington Post have stated that the Blue Book of Dolls & Values is "the bible of doll collecting."

In addition to her work on the fourteen additions of the Blue Book of Dolls & Values, Jan Foulke has also authored: Focusing on Effanbee Composition Dolls; A Treasury of Madame Alexander Dolls; Kestner; King of Dollmakers; Simon & Halbig, the Artful Aspect; Focusing on Gebruder Heubach Dolls; Doll Classics; Focusing on Dolls; China Doll Collecting; German 'Dolly' Collecting, and Doll Buying and Selling. She has been a regular contributor to Doll Reader magazine for 27 years (since the beginning). Her current columns are the popular Antique Q&A and Guide to Antique Dolls.