Collector doll display Saturday

The Lilac City Club is hosting a doll show starting Saturday at10 a.m. at the Days Inn on Sunset Highway.

More than 70 tables will display dolls ranging in price from $5to more than $1,000, sold by collectors from throughout theNorthwest.

To some, the historical value outweighs the dollar value.

Anita Murphy has been collecting dolls for 20 years. Herfavorites are the dolls that have a story behind them.

"These dolls tell a great deal about the people who owned them,"Murphy said. "They go back to the tombs of pharaohs, dating back toforever."

The dolls at Saturday's event will date back as far as the late1800s, back when dolls were sent to the United States as mannequinswearing the latest fashions from France.

Some dolls were modeled after storybook characters. Others wereused as teaching tools to get little girls in the habit of sewingand mothering.

Depending on the time they were molded, dolls were made of amyriad of materials from basic sawdust and glues to papier-mache,tin and piano strings.

Original doll clothes can be as rare and expensive as the dollsthemselves, said Mary Lou, who lives on the North Side and who askedthat her last name not be used.

Mary Lou takes extreme caution to protect her doll collectionfrom being stolen. She learned the lesson from a friend who had arare and expensive doll stolen from her home in Seattle.

"She was so sick from losing it," Mary Lou said.

Mary Lou started collecting baby dolls in the 1970s. Once shebecame a grandmother, she switched to collecting little girl dolls.

"Now all the grandkids have grown up and I am back to babies,"she said.

Once a person starts collecting dolls the hobby can easilyexpand, she said. She also collects costumes, tea party dishes andminiature figurines.

She and other doll collectors in the citywide group travel todoll shows all over the state searching for the next rare treasureto add to their collection.

And with Internet technology, doll shoppers are able to span theworld to complete their collections.

Still, some collectors buy to sell.

Bonita Mason, a member of the doll club, said she plans to buy adigital camera to take pictures of her dolls and sell them on theWeb.

Murphy said she will continue to buy her dolls the old-fashionedway.

"I like to see them in person and pick them up and touch them,"Murphy said.