I kept an old doll in storage for years – then Antiques Roadshow took a look at her face and told me she’s worth $20,000

A WOODEN doll left an appraiser shocked after determining the centuries-old toy was worth thousands.

In 2013, a man brought two wooden dolls to the Antiques Roadshow to learn more about them.

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PBS

He explained to the appraiser that he found the dolls “in the thumb of Michigan” after a woman called him and asked him if he was interested.

“I said, ‘No, I don’t care so much about dolls,'” the man recalled to appraiser Julie Scott.

“She said, ‘They’re very, very old. Maybe you can look at them.’ And when she came in, I really just wanted this one,” he said, pointing to the smaller doll, however, he ended up with both dolls.

The man explained that the woman he bought them from inherited the dolls but didn’t know anything about them.

Scott told the man that she wouldn’t be able to properly authenticate the smaller doll and only spoke about the larger one, revealing that it’s an early English doll that likely dated back to the early 1700s.

“[They] were only owned by wealthy children or children of royalty,” said Scott.

She shared that the doll is wooden and painted, so there was some damage due to age.

“It’s fairly common to see crazing and pieces of paint that will flake off,” said Scott, adding that the doll had a black, pupil-less eye.

“Which is an indication of an early piece.”

Other signs were a dotting technique used in the doll’s eyebrows and the fact that she had an all-wood body but had upper arms made of cloth.

Some other bits of damage were the fact that her clothes were “melting,” which happens ” when you have a silk fabric and it’s weighted with metals,” said Scott.

“It wouldn’t be very often that you would find a doll of this period with original clothes.

“It could be, but it would take more research in order to tell that.”

The doll also had a wig of human hair , which Scott said may or may not be original to her.

The hair could have also been made of flax.

“There are very few of these that have ever survived,” she said.

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“You do find them in museums. You don’t find them out in the general public very often.”

Because the doll was in good condition and Scott estimated that she was of the early 1700s, Queen Anne period, she stated the doll would cost between $15,000 and $20,000 in a retail setting.

“Oh, my,” said the man. “For the two dolls, I paid $100.”

Scott laughed, saying the man got “quite a bargain.”

“I didn’t even want that one!” said the man, adding that he only wanted the smaller doll that Scott couldn’t appraise.

The doll was re-appraised in 2021, according to the Antiques Roadshow website , and still maintains its value of $15,000 to $20,000.

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PBS