An Inadvertent Collection Of Royal Dolls

By Jan Howard

Alyce Block did not know she had a collection within a collection until a few years ago when she realized she had several dolls depicting royalty in her collection of more than 100 dolls of the world.

“It was an accident that it became a collection within a collection,” Ms Block said recently.

Her collection of several dolls modeled after royals has been mounted in the display case near the children’s room on the lower level of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library on Main Street. The dolls will be on exhibit until after Labor Day.

Ms Block offered the collection for display upon learning that the library’s annual Labor Day Book Sale would include a new category on royalty.

“It’s nice to share and to have other people see it and enjoy it,” Ms Block said of her collection.

Ms Block’s collection is comprised of mostly British royalty, including such notables as Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, among others.

The dolls come from several sources. “They are not all from one company,” Ms Block said, adding that some are Peggy Nisbet dolls but others come from other companies, such as the Danbury Mint.

Her Prince Andrew doll was still in its original box at the time the collection was mounted at the library.

Ms Block began collecting the dolls 25 years ago. Some were purchased during several visits she made to Bermuda. Others have been gifts from friends or relatives.

A friend traveled to England and brought back the Sarah Ferguson doll, which depicts her on her wedding day. Later Ms Block purchased a Prince Andrew doll from a friend’s relative’s estate. Her son bought a King Henry VIII doll for her, and her daughter added a christening doll of Prince William to the collection.

A paper doll book entitled The Royal Baby, which offers a look at the private life of Prince William, is also part of her collection on exhibit.

Following Princess Diana’s death, Ms Block purchased books, paper dolls, and other items about her. It was when a group was filming a video about Princess Diana that Ms Block realized the number of dolls depicting royalty that were in her collection.

She had brought her Diana doll, which is depicted on her wedding day, to the event, and, she noted, “That’s when I realized I had a royal collection.”

The C.H. Booth Library’s book sale contains more than 100 titles in the royalty collection, which was expanded this year through donations from individuals and a private collection. The majority of the selections are biographies of British monarchs and other notable royals.

The royalty collection is one of 76 categories of 160,000 books offered during the sale.

The annual sale will be held from Saturday, September 4 through Wednesday, September 8, from 9 am to 5 pm daily at Bridgeport Hall on the Fairfield Hills campus.