A Century of Dolls: Treasures from the Golden Age of Doll Making

What a splendid present this will make. First there is the absolute size, and superb quality of this book. It measures OVER a foot square; the photos are full plate almost 3D in sharp precision detail, and the binding is a premium sewn type. As for the subject this volume concentrates on ceramic dolls; so Barbie lovers look elsewhere! For those starting out in this marvelous hobby, the ceramic doll is one with those precise lifelike features, frequently of large size. They typically have soft bodies, and detailed ceramic faces, feet and hands. You'll love the pictures, they are really beautiful, and the costumes are incredible. Unfortunately they are generally above the normal family's toy budget, but truly I have recently seen some fine new ceramics recently for reasonable prices; would you believe the $12 to $20 range! i suspect if you know what to look for you can buy one or more of these and they may appreciate. Doll collecting of these real looking ceramics is best left to careful children like my 3, or adults. My kid's have dozens of these and actually play with them. They do not break them! Of course my girls have 100's of Barbies too, and these are given a bit rougher handling. I recommend storing them separately. The ceramics, while delicate, are just to beautiful to be ignored. This book goes back a 100 years to show the amazing range of expression and costume possible. The whole family will love this special one of a kind folio!

I have owned this book for several years and still consider it a photographic treasure of antique dolls. With its golden cover of a blonde, antique doll, it has been a regular part of my Christmas decor since I purchased it. Each pair of pages has a charmingly set up photograph on one side, and a few paragraphs written about the doll on the other side. Some of the information is personal and some of it is about the type of doll shown, but it is all briefly written. It is a nice introduction for the beginner, but the experienced collector will find no new information. Buy this book for the wonderful photographs of a wide variety of antique dolls in well thought out displays because it is a photographic documentation, but don't buy it for the written information because there is little.