When a doll named Flora McFlimsey sold for $18,000 at Newport Beach's Hotel Meridien on Sunday, collectors Steve and Debbie Bower of Quartz Hill said it was a bargain.
"It's a unique doll," Steve Bower explained. "A doll like that, without clothes, is worth about $14,000. Altogether, with all the clothes, it's probably worth about $24,000."
Flora McFlimsey had seduced bidders and onlookers with her large gray glass eyes, her brush-stroked multifeathered brows, her heart-shaped upper lip, her accented derriere and molded bosom--all accompanied by a wardrobe that would make a fashion model envious. Made of bisque, wood and composition about 100 years ago by the French master Emile Jumeau, Flora is 19 inches tall with dimples, pierced ears and an original finish.
About 150 people came to the hotel near John Wayne Airport from all over Southern California and from as far away as Denver for the auction, which consisted entirely of the collection from the Museum of Old Dolls and Toys in Winter Haven, near Orlando, Fla. The museum closed its doors for good on Dec. 31, and doll auctioneers George and Florence Theriault were commissioned to sell the 500- to 600-piece collection.
Despite Flora McFlimsey's charms, she didn't bring the auction's top price. That distinction goes to Lady Banks, a hand-carved English wooden doll five years shy of her 300th birthday. Lady Banks fetched $20,000.
The Theriaults, of Annapolis, Md., had expected the top price at the auction to be about $15,000 for Bebe Parisienne, made by another French master, A. Thuillier, in about 1875. But Bebe Parisienne sold for a mere $9,000.
Many of those in attendance Sunday, like the Bowers, sat quietly through the early hours of the sale, waiting for one or two particular items to go on the block.
"Doll collecting for us is both a hobby and an investment. Once you get the bug, you can't stop," Steve Bower said. His wife, he said, bought their first doll "a little over a year ago and since then she's gone crazy." A questioning look from Debbie Bower prompted him to add, "like most people do."
Shirley Augustine would agree. The owner of a Pomona business that reproduces and teaches the reproduction of antique porcelain dolls, she called doll collecting "a fabulous hobby." Augustine said she has been interested in dolls all her life, but did nothing about it until 10 years ago when she met a woman with a small collection.
