GUEST: I brought a doll, which I've always referred to as a china-headed doll, and a little bear. I got them both from my mother, who passed away when I was seven, so I don't have any information about them at all.
APPRAISER: Well, china-headed is fairly close. She is a bisque-headed doll, and it just has to do with the glaze. She is not high-polished like a china would be. She was made by the Armand Marseille Company, Germany, and she's referred to as a Dream Baby. The little bear that you have, the button in the, in the bear's ear helps us a lot. It has the name Steiff on it with an underlined double F, and that button was put in these bears between about 1905 and 1945. The doll is from about 1919, and that is about the date on the bear, as well. You can tell because the bear has long legs, curved, nicely curved. And this bear has an exceptional face. Margarete Steiff, who designed the bear, she had polio as an 18-month-old in 1847. She really wanted to make something of her life. She would have her family take her in a cart to school. She first started with little felt elephants. The Steiff Company became a wonderful, large company. They are still producing pieces today, all beautifully made. She always said that "Only the best was good enough for children." It's a little hard to tell exactly what color this bear is. You can determine a color if you either clean it very gently and see if this is a pale gold Steiff or is it a white Steiff. The other thing would be to look under the joints. But you always take a chance when you pull them that you could do some damage. So, right now, I can't determine, without doing those things, which color it actually is. The doll is one that is fairly common, probably about $125 to $150. The bear, it could be a pale gold bear, in which case, the bear would be between $900 and $1,200.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: If it is a white that has discolored with time, you probably would be looking closer to around $1,200 to around $1,500 for this bear.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: I saw that little face peeking out at me and thought, "Oh, yeah." (both laugh) "That's a good one."
