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Suddenly, half-way through the Saturday session of Theriault’s long-awaited auction of the Legoland Museum of Antique Dolls, Dollhouses and Toys, Kirsten Stadelhofer, long-time curator of the Museum, stood up from her first row seat, interrupted auctioneer Stuart Holbrook and, without preamble, declared “We chose Theriault’s to auction our museum because we felt certain they would do it honor. Now I know we were right.”
Collectors who had gathered from round the world, including representatives from at least five other doll and dollhouse museums, agreed as they bid pieces to record prices over and over again in the three-day auction ably conducted by Stuart Holbrook, President of Theriault’s who has earned a reputation as one of the finest contemporary auctioneers.
The auction took place at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas on May 19-21, 2006, and presented nearly 1300 lots of diverse antique playthings. Top price of the auction was for a 23” model of Kammer and Reinhardt’s 103 character girl that fetched $145,600 (pre-sale estimate $80,000/120,000). The doll had graced the cover of the auction catalog along with a faux half-timbered furnished Danish dollhouse known as “Fruen’s Vilje” that went to $20,160 (pre-sale estime $7500/9500) and a large tin lithographed pull-toy ocean liner that sailed to $4760 (pre-sale estimate $2500/3500).
The Legoland Museum, located in Billund Denmark, was created by the Christiansen family, founders of Lego toys, in 1967, and incorporated two early Danish doll and toy collections as well as important later acquisitions. Of particular note in the museum were the early 19th century dolls of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain firm, of which few are known to exist. The museum owned seven, and each enjoyed vigorous bidding, their prices ranging from $15,000 to $25,000. Porcelain dolls by the rival German KPM firms were equally represented; the four models sold for prices ranging from $11,000 to $35,000.
Most 19th century porcelain dolls, undocumented by makers, are judged by collectors for the rarity of their hair styles or other sculptural details. Bidders at Theriault’s Legoland auction judged well. A petite lady with blue bonnet decorated with yellow streamers fetched $11,200 (pre-sale estimate $800/1200), a 15” doll with unusually large painted brown eyes “making her gaze a candid one” as an early doll book had described the doll, went to $4500 (pre-sale $800/1200), and a 22” lady with a teasing curl tumbling at her nape below a very formal coiffure went to $3200 (pre-sale $600/800). Several dozen other porcelain dolls fared equally well.
Other early dolls at the Theriault auction were the paper maches. An early Rococo style lady with sculpted jewelry and hair combs, possibly by Muller, soared to $13,000 (pre-sale $2000/3000) while a head only, also by Muller, having applied painted flax loop curls, and believed to be a portrait of Queen Victoria at the time of her coronation, went to $3200 (pre-sale $300/400). But top price went to another model with superb coiffure highlighted by a large sculpted comb and delicate painted ringlets of curls onto her face. It sold for $23,000 (pre-sale $2000/3000).
The nucleus of the Legoland Museum doll collection had originally been owned by Estrid Faurholt, a Copenhagen private collector who wrote about her dolls in the 1967 Book of Dolls and Dollhouses. Collectors were delighted to be able to trace the lineage of their newly-acquired dolls through these writings. One doll, a bisque lady with spectacular sculpting of hair and bodice, had also been featured in at least two other well-known doll reference books one of which described her simply as a “Fine Lady”. She soared to $43,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $1200/1800. Other bisque dolls with sculpted hair included a brown-haired woman with a yellow straw bonnet that sold for $5600 (pre-sale $1200/1500). Two ladies with gentle features and blonde sculpted hair were bid vigorously, each to $5200 (pre-sales $800/1200); one was a 28” lady with prescient expression, and blonde hair with loose curls bound by a tightly woven crown braid, while her 24” sister had large arranged curls at the crown held by a narrow black ribbon with three little roses.
Wooden dolls had been featured at the Legoland Museum and they were a favorite with collectors at the Theriault auction, too. Top price in this category went to a fine early wooden 18” lady carved of one solid piece of wood, with gracefully sculpted gown falling about her body in elegant folds. Hairless after hundreds of years of age, collectors didn’t care as it allowed them to appreciate her superb carving all the more. She sold for $21,000 (pre-sale $2500/3500). At the opposite end of the wooden doll category was a 21” doll, affectionately known as “the measles doll” in reference to the painted red dots all over her muslin body. “You have to admit she is homely”, noted Stuart Holbrook, Theriault’s auctioneer, “but how can you not love her?” Collectors agreed. The doll sold for $1600 (pre-sale $800/1200).
The Legoland Museum was noted for “all things childhood” of the 18th-early 20th century, and the three-day auction swung back and forth from toys to dollhouses to dolls to scrap books to tea sets and doll furniture. There were Bru bebes and simple little dime store bisque dolls, there were delightful googlies and flirty-eyed babies. Toys included early tin such as Guntermann Joan of Arc that sold for $4000 (pre-sale estimate $800/1300), a mid-19th century soft metal “Vulcan” miniature train for $3200 (pre-sale $400/500), and a rare cast iron “Lady at the Sewing Machine” that stitched its way to $7000 (pre-sale estimate $1200/1700). There was the poignant scrapbook of Miss Botsworth who wrote in the opening pages that the album had been presented to her by Mr. John McCreary “when I left him to go to India in 1873” (it sold for a reasonable $325), a miniature pencil sketch of Hans Christian Anderson, the beloved Danish storyteller that went to a new home for $475, and a collection of miniature accessories such as pipes, pocket watch, canes and playing cards for a gentleman doll at $700.
There were, in all, over 1250 lots in the two-volume catalog comprising 390 pages. “This catalog will take a place of honor in my library” said one collector after jokingly complaining of a sore back from carrying it around for the three days. “Our goal was to honor this fine museum with a commemorative catalog of top stature”, said Stuart Holbrook. “Collectors mourn the museum’s closing, but we aimed to create a book that would be a deserving lasting memory.” It was that, collectors agreed.
Additional copies of the catalog are still available at www.dollmasters.com or by calling 800-966-3655. For more information about the auction or upcoming Theriault auctions visit www.theriaults.com or call 800-638-0422. Theriault’s next catalog doll auction is schedule for July 9 in Dallas, Texas. Theriault’s is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland.
CAPTIONS
372. Top lot of the Theriault auction of the Legoland Museum of Antique Dolls, Dollhouses and toys went to Kammer and Reinhardt’s 103 character doll in a 23” size. Few examples of this doll are known to exist, and this rarity along with its superb quality and condition, urged the bidding price along to $145,600.
835. The regal lady had been featured in at least three early doll reference books. Many collectors had waited for her appearance in the 3rd and final day of the auction, but fierce bidding between two doll museums quickly took over, and the doll soared to $43,000.
469. Fittingly, the Legoland Museum, which had been located in Billilund Denmark owned a small collection of the rare porcelain dolls by Royal Copenhagen. This brown-haired lady with topknot, bearing the Royal Copenhagen mark, was one, and she sold for $21,000.
18. The wonderful dollhouse had everything going for it including knowledge of its maker, the cabinetmaker Mr. Tibbenham of Ipswich England who in the early 20th century was noted for his 16th century furniture reproductions. About 1920 he made this dollhouse, too, a replica of the famous Sparrowe House of his hometown. It sold for $14,000.
602. A rare early tinplate toy, “Black Man with Dancing Polichinelle” sold for $4000. Its amusing theme appealed to collectors at the Theriault auction, despite its paint flakes.
386. Collectors of cast iron toys and collectors of sewing ephemera competed for the rare toy. As long as the crank handle at the back continued to be turned, the lady sewed and sewed and sewed. In fact, she sewed herself all the way to $7000.
190. Among the rare dollhouse miniatures at the Theriault auction was this lithopane fernery. In very fine original condition, it sold for $4400.
  
   
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