I recently purchased five carved wooden dolls from a private party as a direct sale (non-auction) and later learned that they were not authentic Door of Hope dolls.
After nearly 40 years of collecting, enjoying, and selling dolls (including dozens of authentic Door of Hope dolls) it was a shock to realize I had been fooled. Yes, the dolls were nicely done and their clothing was authentic enough to fool even the seasoned collector. Their faces were different, but I was told that they may have been from a later period or a different carver than most and that they were likely even more rare than the more typical faces.
After much searching, I did find an accomplished expert on the subject and she personally inspected and photographed the dolls next to some of her own, authentic, Door of Hope dolls. The differences were subtle to me and likely to many, but stood out to her because she has seen literally thousands of these dolls.
The expert speculated that these dolls may have been dolls referred to in a circa 1913 report from the Door of Hope Mission that revealed competing dolls that were affecting the mission’s sales of their dolls. She further speculated that the costumes may have been made by former residents of the mission, as their clothing was so correct and well made. She also mentioned that she has several “Door of Hope Type” dolls in her own collection that she knows are much more valuable than the authentic ones because of their rarity and that they were competing dolls.
In the course of listing these dolls in my online shop, my mistake was discovered and I removed the dolls from my shop while I completed the research to discover just what I had. Two of the dolls had already been sold. One was on layaway and the other had been delivered to the buyer. The customer with the layaway was advised of my error and received my deepest apology for my mistake along with a swift check to reimburse every penny she had paid. She was very grateful and enjoyed receiving new documentation about the doll research as I received it. The other buyer who had taken delivery of the doll was offered a full refund of every penny she paid as well, under the condition that she return the doll to me promptly in the same condition as it was sent to her. That customer, for reasons unknown to me, decided to keep her doll and did not return it for a refund, though she was given approximately one month to return the doll.
I later learned that the five dolls I purchased privately, had been sold at auction shortly before I purchased them. I did find a group photo online after the fact, which confirmed that they were the same dolls. Whether or not the auction company was aware that these were not authentic Door of Hope dolls, I will never know. Apparently, however, more of these dolls have been offered at auction by the same auction house, so Door of Hope doll collectors should beware.
I hope that publishing this brief memo of my experiences with this particular purchase of dolls will help others who are looking for authentic Door of Hope dolls. The dolls I have are wonderful, their costumes excellently made, and they are valuable collectibles in their own right, but they are not authentic dolls made at the Door of Hope Mission and will not be offered as authentic Door of Hope dolls when I do list them for sale again. They will be offered as “Door of Hope Type” dolls.
