Mildred Seeley was internationally famous for her collection of French dolls. Yet she never went to France. Her life was spent in a small village in upstate New York, and in her later years, in Green Valley, Arizona, about as far from France as one could get. Yet she built an international network of doll lovers and a world-class doll collection. During her lifetime, Ms. Seeley gifted many of her favorite dolls to her children, Jay and Colleen, and it is this Seeley Family Collection that highlights Theriault’s auction.
Highlighting the Seeley Family Collection is a very rare doll by Albert Marque, believed to be the sister doll to the Marque boy sold in the previous Theriault's Seeley dolls auction. Ms. Seeley had acquired the pair from the Gaynell Densen Museum in North Carolina many years before, “scratching together her last penny” as she described the joyful purchase. The sister Marque is wearing her original costume, attributed to the couturier skills of Margaine-Lacrox, and has original pencil script on her foot indicating the style of the costume. There are other dolls that fans of Mildred Seeley will recognize, including the blue-eyed A.T. that Ms. Seeley named Tiffany and wrote about in her biography, noting "the gentle doll goes beyond the painter or the poet". There is red-haired “Little Grump”, the beloved “Snow Angel” A.T., “Stobe,” the portrait Jumeau and dozens and dozens more. Over 120 of the dolls sold at this auctions are from the Seeley family collection, and each of those dolls is specially designated in the auction catalog.
The auction features more than 200 other outstanding antique dolls and doll-related playthings ranging from rare French bebes and fashion ladies, to mignonettes, German bisque characters and child dolls, teddy bears, pull-toys, toys, and rarities from the Wickman Collection of Birmingham, Alabama and the Overacher Collection of San Francisco and Oregon. Dolls from original estates in France and America are also present.
For further information or to order a catalog for the auction, visit Theriault's. To view the catalog online and to attend the auction via the Internet, visit Proxibid.
