What I Collect

Initially, I intended to make this blog about my collecting habit and started talking about my new dog and then got lost for almost a year. I am going to start out with a list of the things that I collect. It is a list I made for my graduate thesis paper. I thought if I had a list it might make the endless boxes of stuff seem less random.

What I Collect

Dolls of any shape or size

Barbie is my best friend. I do not have a new total but I am sure it is in the thousands.

Chatty Cathy , the doll that used to talk, Tammy, Dawn, Little Kiddles and Patty Play Pal were two dolls from my childhood.

Jane West and family were after Barbie and I found that I related to her more closely because of her plain look, brown hair and movable hands that were capable of holding a camera or a gun.

There are dolls that fit the small doll homes and china head baby dolls.

Metal doll mold, Doll clothes, hangers, shoes , accessories

Doll cars, buses, motorcycles, recreational vehicles etc

Anything with a head.

Famous personalities like The Flintstones, Sonny and Cher, Farrah Fawcett and the Olsen twins.

I do have new dolls like Bratz and Troll Dolls.

Although my Knock Down Cats or Punks are in the Sea Shore Category, they are like dolls.

Hand Puppets, Marionettes and Ventriloquist Dummies.

Doll Houses and furniture,

Tin Doll houses, plastic furniture, any kind of furniture in a small scale,

Chairs that could fit small children but still in a small scale.

Rugs, small oriental ones, made from ties, fur and animal pelts.

Television Sets

Sporting equipment, gym and exercise, Bicycles, boxing gloves,

Tennis and skiing.

Luggage, pocketbooks

Petite Princess and Princess Patti Furniture

They deserve their own category because they are the newest addition to my collection. It is a dollhouse full of furniture that is made with real fabric, plastic and brass-like metal pieces.

Hand crafted items include:

Knitted Poodle dogs,

Bottle cap chair, chain, bottle, snake

Sewing items, fabric. thread, buttons, Knitted Poodle dogs, embroidered and needlepointed works.

Dogs in general, preferably plastic, knitted, plaster, tin

Taxidermy to include, Deer heads and hooves, squirrels, foxes, alligators, alligator purses, chicks, fish, seagull, etc. I often think my earliest association to the taxidermy is from the Addams Family television show. There was a standing bear in the show and a fish with a foot sticking out of its mouth.

Bulls, Bull fighters and dancing women

SMALL TOYS

Small plastic teeth, nails etc.

Pez, Mr. Potato Head, Plastic animals, Playmobile

The Dollar Store, or as I call it the "Thirty Dollar Store", I buy endless items at the dollar store. Bugs, spiders, snakes, skeletons

Books, art books, how to do books, sheet music, post cards, ephemera in general, signs,

Photography of children, dogs

Small metal buildings

Guns, both plastic and small metal

Musical instruments, pianos, heads of composers.

Cameras, both toy and real useable ones

Pictures of dead people.

Mechanical toys, battery operated or wind up, broken or working.

Handmade mosaic ashtrays

Tramp Art, pocketbooks and picture frames woven out of cigarette packs

Bowling pins

Noise makers

Rubber Stamps, any older office equipment

The list could grow at any time if something new catches my attention.

April 2019 *SINCE this original post, I have added some new items to my list.

Objects made from bottlecaps (this would fit into the Tramp Art Category)

I do not buy as many Barbies because I do not like the new ones but I do still buy an old one if it  is good.

I still buy doll furniture but I have upgraded from the plastic furniture (althought I still but Renwal) to the metal Tootsie Toy and Arcade brands. They are from the 20's and are much more expensive and rare.

Metal (Tin) Watercolor Paint Boxes with the fancy pictures on the lids. I just like the boxes. The paints are usually trashed.

The Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus are toys are originally from 1903. There are animals. clowns and accessories.

I love DOGS and even if I mentioned it I still collect them. I used to only collect plastic ones and then switched to china. In the past few years I have focused on "Dogs with and Injury". They make Boxers with their tails bandaged, Dog with a Toothache etc.

I do buy some cats but not too many.

I like sculptures that are an artist painting or sculpting. Mostly under 12" or 6". Artist at the potters wheel etc.

to be continued.....