By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Contributing Writer
Dolls of every size, shape and description will be featured this weekend during a show and sale hosted by the A-Z Doll Club.
The event is planned from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Redmen’s Lodge, 503 E. Third St., Washington. Admission is $3 a person, and children under 12 accompanied by a parent will be admitted free. Refreshments will be served.
Club members will be joined by dealers and collectors from across North Carolina and Virginia.
A highlight of the show will be a raffle for a “Baby Annie” porcelain doll commemorating the 95th birthday of the Raggedy Ann doll. A raffle ticket is available for a $1 donation to the club. Tickets may be purchased in advance from any club member or during the show.
The club was organized in the mid-1980s, according to its current treasurer, Anne Scott. Proceeds from the annual show have benefited such local organizations as the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center and Brown Library, she added. The club meets the fourth Monday of each month, beginning at 11:30 a.m., at Golden Corral for a Dutch-treat luncheon, and new members and guests are always welcome.
Officers, along with Scott, are president Donna Hodges, vice president Betty Ross and secretary Shirley Woolard.
Each meeting includes a show-and-tell session during which members share dolls representing the month’s special theme, which may be a holiday, season or back-to-school activity.
Scott, who fancies herself a bit of a doll historian as well as a collector, provided a few interesting tidbits about her favorite toys.
“The creation of dolls is one of the oldest forms of art,” she said. “Early cavemen were known to make dolls from dry animal skins for children’s play toys. They were also made of wood.”
While today’s Barbie and other vinyl dolls are popular, earlier versions were fashioned from china, bisque, tin, pewter, brass, lead, copper, celluloid, porcelain, rubber and cloth.
The estimated 30 active members of the club tend to specialize in their favorites, which include dolls depicting American presidents and their first ladies, Shirley Temple dolls and Teddy bears, the latter making up a good part of Scott’s personal collection.
“The world is full of Teddy bears, loved by young and old alike,” she pointed out.