Vintage view: antique dolls

Kya deLongchamps overcomes her loathing of dolls to admit the collector value of even relatively modern models.

IT feels rather queer, writing about dolls. I don’t dislike dolls — I loathe them. Touring antique fairs in the UK in a camper van some years ago, we parked beside the West Wales Museum of Childhood in Pen-ffynnon. I spent a sleepless night with the roller blinds all but tacked to sills, expecting a hail of tiny balled fists to beat on the windows.

A menacing greeting by a life-size American zombie -style doll which stiffly walked and, even more horrifying, talked, left its mark on my infancy.