Unique Serving Platter

If children don’t have toys to play with, they will improvise with whatever is at hand because playing is a natural instinct. Children learn through play and it’s a healthy way of learning to socialize with other children. In the modern age of mass produced plastic toys, there is a growing interest in antique toys. Past toys were made of high quality and natural materials, such as wood and craftsmen fashioned them.

There are many companies that specialize in the sale of authentic antique toys or their replicas. Some toys and games have been around a lot longer than one might suppose. The yo-yo, for example, is thought to have been in existence thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece. The wooden toys were popular with children at the French court of the 1700s and were introduced into England in the following century.

Jacks have long been played on street corners, wherever children gather. Their evolution is also a long one and it’s thought that a form of the game was played 2,000 years ago with animal bones and pebbles. The jack was later made from wood, then rubber and pewter. Marbles too have been played for thousands of years. They were extremely popular in the 19th century and were made from clay, stone or glass.

Many children enjoy a game of pick up sticks. The game dates from the 1700s when it was known as Jackstraws. In common with other antique toys, it’s gone in and out of fashion and is enjoying a surge of interest at the moment. Many parents are delighted to see toys from their own childhood back in the shops, so they can pass them on to the next generation.

Whipping tops are said to have come from the Far East and Native American tribes played with them in the frozen north on the ice. They became very fashionable in Victorian England and the craze was exported back to America, an example of antique toys going in a circle.

Ball and bat games have been played for a long time in one form or another, leading to the eventual modern past times of baseball, cricket and rounders. There were early balls made from cloth or wood before the processing of rubber. Knurr and Spell was one of the best selling antique toys, a ball and bat set that used a hard ball and a bat made from native pine.

The list of popular antique toys includes familiar items such as wooden dolls, dominos, rocking horses, hopscotch sets, dice games, toy drums and toy penny whistles. In the days before television and computer games, these toys were the only sources of fun.

Antique dolls are wonderful items to collect. They are charming and quite lovely, and they serve to bring out the kid in you. Antique dolls can also be a little confusing. You may find a really attractive item that is practically worthless. You may also find a worthless looking doll that is worth a fortune.

Pricing antique dolls is pretty complex. There are certain designs made by certain companies that take in a pretty penny while other models are not worth very much at all. I came upon this odd discovery by a fortunate accident when I tried to sell some old toys that were in my attic. I have a dear friend who is an honest, avid doll collector. She immediately grabbed on of the antique dolls and said that I needed to take the piece out of the yard sale. She practically passed out when she saw that I was selling the item for less than a dollar.

After the yard sale, she took the time to tell me that the ugly doll was worth a few hundred dollars. I had no idea that any vintage doll could yield that much money. As it turns out, many antique dolls are very rare and very desirable among collectors. These desirable antique dolls are pretty deceptive, though. Honestly, I had the notion of just tossing the item in the garbage but I figured that someone would want to fix it. Maybe some person who liked very old looking things would be at the sale, I figured. There was no way that I would price this doll over a dollar but as it turned out, she was worth much more.

Of course, I sold the doll and was more than happy to let the new owner feel complete in his purchase. He is a collector that has several antique dolls in his stock. Ironically, he doesn’t collect dolls in particular. This puzzled me but it also let me know how valuable some antique dolls really are.

Aside from my kind friend, I had no other way of knowing if I stumbled on another valuable find. I decided to research into what guides are available to help me determine which antique dolls are valuable and which are not. I found a handful of options.

The local book store is a great research facility but it can be pretty pricey especially if the book doesn’t contain information about the specific antique dolls you are seeking. The library is hit-and-miss, too, as well as time consuming. The Internet turned out to be the best resource for quickly determining which antique dolls are valuable and which are not. You can also sell your items online as well.