JOY'S ANTIQUE DOLLS

Published in June/July 2003 Doll Reader

SHOPPE TALK

BY Jeannette Cézanne

JOY’S ANTIQUE DOLLS

Joy Bradley’s family often talked about a mysterious china doll that belonged to Joy’s grandmother. Soon Joy was caught up in the story, and she became fascinated by antique dolls. “My first acquisition,” she says, “was a china-head doll known as Parthenia.”

Working as a vice president in a national bank for 27 years, Joy traveled all over the country. Everywhere she went, she found opportunities to add to her china-head collection. “And then I discovered parians!” After that, the excitement just kept building with each new medium, each new face, and each new area of understanding.

Six years ago, Joy left her banking job and started working full time with her beloved dolls. “After so many years working in a high-stress corporate environment, having my own doll business is like a breath of fresh air and a comfort for the soul,” she says. Perhaps because of the delight that she took in building her own collection, Joy’s Antique Dolls is particularly enthusiastic about working with beginning collectors.

“Someone buying a $50 doll will get the same personal service and care as someone buying a $5000 doll, and they’ll receive it with the same professional packaging as the more expensive dolls,” she says. “We encourage beginning antique doll collectors. They often have many more questions than the seasoned collectors, and we enjoy being a part of their developing collections.”

When asked what her favorite part about owning the business is, Joy can’t decide if it’s the dolls or the customers. She enjoys traveling all over the country in search of special dolls as well as adding to her own “rotating” doll collection. But she is also enthusiastic about her customers and their stories. “We recently express-shipped an order to a marina in Florida, where the customer was docked for a few days before going home to Alaska!” Certainly few other antique dolls get sent on cruises such as that one.

And yet customer service is more than just the excitement of sending dolls all around the world. It’s knowing that there is an ongoing relationship with other doll collectors. “I personally answer each and every e-mail and each and every letter and phone call,” Joy promises. “I have developed a following of repeat customers from the US as well as in over 25 countries. They’re my pride and joy!” And their quests are her quests: “I love finding a special doll and hearing the excitement in their words when they say, ‘I just have to have this doll.’”

Joy will do what she can to help them. “Because our shop is primarily a one-person operation, I know the inventory very well.” She knows at once if she has what a buyer is looking for. If she doesn’t have the item, she adds that doll to her shopping list for upcoming buying trips.

In addition to her antique doll shop at Ruby Lane, a virtual street of antique dealers of all kinds, Joy also has a shop for vintage dolls, vintage artist dolls, and some doll parts. Both sites receive her same level of service, courtesy, and enthusiasm. “If I wasn’t doing this,” says Joy, “then I’d probably be working on restoring our 1840s house, which we’ve been working on for six years now.” These days, however, she has the best of both worlds, running her businesses and helping her husband restore their home.

Joy will be delighted to welcome you to her Web site. Rest assured that when you visit, you will be, as Joy says, “considered our friends and fellow caretakers of our predecessors’ cherished possessions.”

Facts At A Glance:

Name: Joy’s Antique Dolls

Owners: Joy and John Bradley

Web sites: www.joysantiquedolls.com and www.bradleyhausantiques.com (Joy and her husband also have a virtual shop for general antiques as well as some vintage dolls, vintage artist dolls, and some parts.)

Address: P.O. Box 302, Franklin, KY, 42135-0302

Telephone: 270-586-0384 (8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time, but e-mail preferred)

Hours: Internet shop is open 24/7; Joy herself is generally online from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Staff: Joy’s husband John is a much-valued part-time helper.

Specialization: Early and rare china and parian dolls, with wax and papier-mâché running a close second. She sells all kinds of antique dolls, including china, parian, papier-mâché, wax, German and French bisque, French fashions, composition, cloth, and more. Joy carries an unusually wide variety of antique dolls in an equally wide price range, from $10 to $8000. Some vintage dolls also available through their Bradley Haus site.

Reprinted with permission.