Auction Nets Serious Dollers

NEWPORT BEACH — She has dreamy brown eyes highlighted in a smoky gray eye shadow. Her skin is as smooth as porcelain. And in her half-smile, dimple marks bring out the charm of her red lips.

She’s a doll--an 1867 French rarity that fetched $53,000 at an annual doll show and auction this weekend sponsored by Theriault’s, a Maryland auction house.

The 17-inch figure of Princess Marie Therese de Lamballe was among about 1,000 dolls auctioned in four shows that drew hundreds--mostly collectors--to the Sutton Place Hotel.

Patrons included a 17-year-old Canadian at her first doll exhibit, a Tokyo resident who regularly travels to the United States and Europe in search of “fantastic workmanship” and a Boston stand-up comedian who once spent $120,000 on a French doll.

“These dolls have originality and character,” said Geri Baker, the 30-year-old comedian who bought her first doll about 10 years ago. She now has about 800 in her collection. “Beyond all of that, they speak of little children taking care to protect these dolls,” Baker said, then pointing at a photo of her doll by Halopeau, called the “H” model. “Some little girl must have loved this doll so much to keep it in mint condition like this.”

The dolls, many displayed in their original costumes and boxes, date roughly from the 1800s to World War I. They are valued from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.

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Saturday afternoon, the most expensive doll was the model of Princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette’s confidant. She was beheaded in 1793 during the French Revolution and later portrayed in Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”

“It’s very rare and has a rather interesting history, a tragic one,” said Luke Blen, a spokesman for Theriault’s.

Other highlights included a French Steiner “Figure D” doll sold for $38,000 to a Switzerland estate and two German dolls that fetched $34,000.

Doll collectors armed with guide books, pocket flashlights and magnifying glasses scurried from table to table, checking the “feathering” of eyebrows or buttons on the frocks. They look for trademark characters such as the “paperweight” eyes on French Jumeau dolls or the “comma” brows on the German Max and Moritz dolls, said Janet Hollingsworth, editor of the magazine Doll News.

“They look for chips and cracks,” Hollingsworth said. “A tiny chip could devalue the doll.”

Sondra Gast, 60, of La Mesa, said she simply looks for dolls that strike her fancy.

“I can’t explain it, it has to speak to me in some ways,” Gast said. “It has to be something that I want to take home with me.”

George Theriault, who started the auction house 27 years ago with his wife, Florence, said people who collect dolls usually do it for personal reasons rather than financial ones. Theriault recalled a Kentucky woman who owned at least 300 dolls, all of the same type.

“When I asked her why she had so many of the same dolls, she told me, ‘It reminded me of my son and I couldn’t not buy them.’ ”

Another woman Theriault met told him that she sleeps on the couch of her New York home so that her dolls can sleep on the bed.

But not all collectors do it for personal reasons. A woman in Alameda was arrested by the FBI years ago on suspicion of espionage during World War II, Florence Theriault said.

“She was sending messages through the dolls,” said Florence Theriault, a librarian turned antique dealer who personally inspects every doll up for auction.

Sometimes, the couple find dolls worth thousands of dollars stuffed in attics or in dumpsters.

About 20 years ago, George Theriault met a woman who was cleaning her attic and was about to throw out an old doll. When she saw Theriault on a television show, she called in and learned it was worth $14,000.

“The whole family flew to Florida for the auction, and they all clapped when we sold the doll,” Florence Theriault said.

The Theriaults also recalled an antique stuffed rabbit rescued from a trash bin that later sold for $1,500.

George Theriault said, “Not a day goes by that we don’t learn something new, find something surprising around the corner.”