Haunted Treasures: Creepiest Doll Valuations Ever on Antiques Roadshow | BBC Antiques Roadshow UK

Well, I've heard of multiple personalities, but this really does take the biscuit, doesn't it? She's French. She's made a bisque, which is unglazed porcelain. Maybe three and a half thousand pounds for her. Chocolate Tommy Atkins, number 6971, and I've got ambulance nurse, and they survived intact. That's right, yes. And where do you get them from? My late godmother, she died in September, and I've been clearing her house out. Right. And I've been told they're about 1920s. Well, they're made by Pascals London, and I have seen one or two of these before, but never in complete condition. Now, I mean, this is very unusual survival, really. If you were patriotic in the First World War, you would have bought these chocolates in support of the troops. And the chocolates discoloured the crepe paper a bit, but it's essentially all there. What you don't want to do is to come out on a very hot day. That's right, it's a bit cooler today. No, and I wouldn't recommend eating them either. And just bits of fun, really. What would somebody pay in a sale for them? Probably somebody would pay further to £50 to £100, something like that. Right, OK. But good fun, though. Yes, that's right. Well, she's been in the family all my life. She belonged to my grandmother, and she used to be kept in the back of a very dark, very cluttered cupboard, and as a treat once a year if my sister and I really played our cards right, she would be brought out and my grandmother would wind her up. And she'd do her thing. She's dressed beautifully in this silk, which is... It's deteriorating, but it's inevitable. When you think that she was probably made in around 1890, 1900, the fact that your grandmother very cleverly kept her at the back of a cupboard, I'm sure it was nothing to do with keeping her out of your way. She merely wanted to conserve the fabric. And in fact, that has, I'm sure, helped. You can see it's beginning just to go into tatters here. She's standing on a little velvet-covered box which contains all the gubbins. It contains the musical movement, and it will contain all the cams and the cogs to set her going. But what I want to do is to turn her round and just see if there is anything that might be revealed on the back of her head. And there is. The letters SH and the number 1300. So in fact, that tells me that she was made by a company called Simon and Halbig. The 1300 is actually the mould number of her particular face. So yes, I would have said that she is probably dating from about 1900 or so from that head. People say, oh, well, how come that they made these very fragile toys for children? And of course, the answer is they weren't for children at all. They were actually made for adults as after-dinner entertainment pieces, really a sort of rich man's play thing in a way. They were originally made in Paris, and there were a number of top makers. And she was made by Leopold Lambert. She would have been dressed for a particular market, in this case for Spain, exported and sold down there. The market for these is really very strong. And the more that the automaton does, the more movements that it has, the more expensive they tend to be. And looking at her, she's got movements to her... Oh, this bee obviously thinks that she's a very delicate flower. I'm just going to blow him away. There we go. So moves the tambourine, her head moves and so on. So she's got several movements there. And I think that if she came up for auction, we'd be talking about perhaps a figure of between 1800 and perhaps just over 2000 pounds. Very good. So she's lovely. And I'd like her, if we may, just to play her out. So I'm going to just give her a bit of a wind at the back there. Turn the knob. It's been passed down the family on my husband's side from his great aunt. It's the lady in the picture there. It did originally belong to her five-year-old sister, which she got it for the Christmas present, which unfortunately, six weeks later, she died of diphtheria. And apparently when she was... This was the last thing she was holding with a doll when she died. So eldest sister's kept it in memory to her sister. Was that an orange? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a tragic story. And as I always say, the things that are more valuable are the ones that haven't been played with. And usually it's because of a sad story like this. She's been put away in her original box in superb, pristine condition. And the fact that it's a British doll, because we don't have very many British dolls in this country. She's what we call a shoulder head. So she's all in one with a shoulder plate. Lovely original silk satin dress and little overcoat. Original shoes, her own little bag, and this photograph of the original owner. All go to push up her value to, I would say somewhere in the region of 200 to 300, possibly a little bit more. So... Thank you. Well, we really do have a taste of the 70s here. What drew you to these dolls? My mum worked at Queen's University in Belfast. And she worked in a department called Social Anthropology, which probably in the early 70s was quite exotic for us, certainly in our troubled times. We had many presents coming in from her friends that worked in this department. And one of the ladies was American. And she brought my sister and myself one each of these dolls from America. And they are from a company called Kenner Blythe. They were produced in 1972. And I believe that they only ran for one year. Yeah, and of course the reason they only ran for 1972 is in some ways quite obvious. Quite obvious. And I was quite happy for her to be in the back of my mother's china cabinet and really not to look at them too much because of their slightly maybe alien look, the big eyes. Well, I think what's hysterical about them is the massive head, the eyes, and then the tiny feet. The tiny feet. I mean, that is... Absolutely. And of course, they don't stand. But of course, they do have one special feature, which makes them even more terrifying. Go on. For most little girls. Yeah. Which is, if you pull this string, 50-year-old thing. The eyes change colour. I suppose I've had this ambivalent relationship with them. I did hate them when I was little and then have grown over the years. I suppose it's like everything, you know, the 70s have gone, but the retro feel to these, I think this just captures that groovy 70s appeal. Absolutely. I think these are so 70s. And the clothing. I mean, look at this. There's Afghan. The Afghan coat. The travellers will remember them. I mean, you can't believe it. I love these, the knee-high boots. When I was little in the 70s, that was the ultimate. A pair of pink plastic boots. This is an original shoe from my own doll, but it was missing one. So I have waited about seven years, possibly, to find the other one. And eventually one orange shoe came up online and I was able to get it. So it is a bit of a labour of love, but that's part of the joy of collecting these. You don't think it's a little bit of an obsession? I would happily admit that it is an obsession. That's okay. Yeah. The thing is, what they've got going for them, they are absolutely in great condition. You've got the boxed set and they're actually rare. They have become massive, mainly in the States. So let's just talk a little bit about value. So I think in today's market, you'd certainly be looking at 300 for this and certainly 1,000 for the doll already. I would say maybe 5,000 with your case, the other dolls and these fantastic clothes. And I'm still laughing. In the 70s, I'm a bit horrified. In the 70s, I wore an outfit like this. Absolutely wonderful. She's got all her original clothes and someone has looked after her so well. So either your mother or your grandmother must have really cherished her. And it's strange that a gentleman should own a doll, isn't it? Well, I take it you don't play with her. Well, she's French. She's made of bisque, which is probably, as you know, unglazed porcelain. But the interesting thing is we call them swivel head dolls or fashionable dolls because they were made to wear the costume of the day. And this would have been around 1860. So definitely your grandmother's. And it could well have been imported into England after the Great Exhibition of 1851 and imported actually without any clothes on. And then the clothes might have been made in England. She's got all her lovely underwear and the boots, which are wonderful, heeled leather boots. And they have a mark underneath, which is a T. And I think it's a T for Terraine, which also was a doll maker and made clothes in Paris. So she's all wonderfully original. My mother must have been careful with her. She must have been. She had to play with her. She must have been. And you've had her just tucked away in a box. Oh yes, in a cabinet, yeah. I think for insurance, you should be insuring her for 3,000 pounds. That is a good one. I know. Well, I've heard of multiple personalities, but this really does take the biscuit, doesn't it? Well, yes. They certainly are very unusual and I'm surprised to find one here. Now, what's the background on this one? Well, I know that it belonged to my aunt and she gave them to me when I was a child. And that's all I know about it, really. And when she gave you the, what shall we call it, the set, let's call it the set, did you like it or did you find it a bit... No, I liked it. I was rather fascinated by it. And I did used to put the different heads on from time to time. Yes, because... Yeah, it's like having four dolls. Exactly, it's a very clever system. You have the body, very nice jointed body with a lovely layers and layers of underskirts and petticoats and then this very pretty little overdress here on top. A nightdress, perhaps. We have one here with eyes that open and close and then three other heads with different sorts of hairstyles. I mean, this one could almost be a boy's haircut, couldn't it? I used to think of that as a boy. As the boy. And then one here with golden curly locks and the last one, oh this is great, she's got what I call a pair of headsets on, a pair of sort of telephone headsets, wonderful sort of horns like croissants of plaits either side. She is made of bisque or the heads are made of bisque and hopefully, there we go, on the back of this one we have everything that we want to know about. Because it says here Germany and the number 174. Now that number actually refers to this particular head. It's known as a number 174 head. So that's easy to identify. Ah, well there's a bit more information here on the box lid itself. It actually says Kestner and Kestner will be or is the name of the manufacturer. Now J.D. Kestner, the makers, were based in Walterhausen in Thuringia in Germany and Thuringia was the great doll making area of Germany in the 19th century and in fact, Germany was the great doll producing nation. And I think that one of the aspects of this that appeals to me so much is the fact that it is in its original case with the label still there almost unplayed with. Now I don't used to play with it. I'm almost going to say that you're fibbing because it is in such great condition. You were obviously incredibly careful. Date-wise, she's going to be dating from between about 1900 and 1910. That's the sort of period. And I would have said that the doll herself just as she comes would be worth perhaps three or four hundred pounds. But with the other heads and the fact that she's complete in her original box, I would have thought we're talking about more like 1,500 pounds. I put an advert in the paper because I collect one or two dolls and the lady saw my ad. She rang me and said, I think I've got a doll in the side of the dustbin. What? I only paid her 26 pein. It's money from 30 odd years ago. Oh, well. And she didn't want anything at all at the time anyway. And then there was her and seven other dolls. They were really lovely, but she's my favourite. What a story. Well, this little doll is, I'm sure you know, is known as a bébé. It's by the famous dollmaker Jumot, Émile Jumot, who was one of the top five dollmakers in France in around 1860. Now what excites me about this doll is that she's one of the first bébés that they made in bisque. She has these wonderful hand-cut almond eyes. She's got a little white bisque between the lips and she's marked on the back of the neck, number one. Now here, you can hardly see it. It's just there, just there. Now that is a size number. Underneath this mohair wig, we have the original nailed-on kid, which nails itself onto a cork pate, which gives the form of the head because inside it's absolutely empty. Isn't that really exciting? And I'm going to do this because she's got a mark on her bottom which shows that she's by Jumot, Medaille d'Or, Paris. While I've got her knickers down, I want to just show how these early bodies are known as eight-ball jointed because they are floating balls. Can you see? It gives them the most amazing action, I suppose, and you can turn them round in every direction. She's got eight floating balls, two on her hips, two on her shoulders, two on her elbows, and two on her little knees. And that's the early body. So she is known as a bébé. Compared with this one, which is known as a fashion doll. And now she was probably slightly earlier. She was probably made by one of the other five, Gaultier. And she has this waisted effect. With a beautiful dress. I think, have you had that made with old material? Yes, a friend of mine made this one. Yes. Well, now I'm coming back to this one because these are highly collectible. She is worth a lot more than her. This one, I suppose, we're talking about somewhere around 800 pounds. Nice. But this one is a rarity. And I think you'll find she's probably worth as much as 5,000 pounds. I was told about 800 pounds. I thought that was good. Were you? Recently. Yes. She needs to go into hospital, I think, quite frankly. Tell me how you came to have her. Well, I ran a toy shop, didn't I? Yes. In Devon. And an old lady came one day and said to me, would I like to buy her? Because she felt she ought to get rid of her before she died and give her a good home. And I said, yes. So that was about 1975. Yes, yes. And did you pay a lot for her? I paid her what she asked, which was 100 pounds, which I thought was a lot at the time. There is a pair to this, i.e. they're known as either Hansel or Gretel. Yes. By the manufacturers who are Cammer or Cammer, with an umlaut on the A, and Reinhardt. German manufacturers who were operating in Thuringia, which is now the center of Germany and was in the east. Oh, really? There were very big porcelain-making factories and doll factories in that part of Germany. Sadly, very few remain. Now, this is one of the porcelain ones which was registered in 1909 by Cameron Reinhardt. Oh, really? That's much earlier than I thought. I'm going to just show the back of the head to you because I'm sure you've seen that. It just actually says 114, incised in the porcelain and fired again. Now, 114, if you were to call me and say I have a K&R 114, I would know exactly what it looked like because it is a mould. And they poured in the molten porcelain into a mould. Now, underneath that, it says 49. Now, that is the size, 49 centimeters. So that tells me pretty well all I want to know. I just need to know that she's in good condition. I think someone's kissed her tip of her nose quite a lot. Yes, so do I, yes. It wasn't me. It wasn't you. You kept her very well. So slightly rubbed on the nose and just little tiny bits of white here where little scratches. Her color's good though, isn't it? Her cheek color. She's got good color. And lovely painted blue eyes. Now, had she glass eyes, she'd be probably worth double. It's quite extraordinary. It's probably because they're rarer. And to make her sit, she has these very good joints. So they're creaking a bit. Like me. Oh, I haven't heard you creak. Nice original dress. Not original shoes. I made them. You made them? Oh, well, very well made. And a lovely little doll, All Bisque, which is her baby. Yes. Sweet little doll. Yes. I would say that if she were to go into a doll sale, you would probably get in the region of three, maybe three and a half thousand pounds for her. What? It's going to her eventually, isn't it? Aren't you lucky? Very interested. Really, why is she so valuable? These Cameron Reinharts are extremely valuable. The world record for any doll at auction is a Cameron Reinhart. Really? 188,000 pounds.