ALLENDALE, N.J. – Leighton Galleries will sell a single-owner collection of approximately 500 antique dolls – 300-plus lots – on Thursday, Oct. 15. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide absentee and Internet live bidding.
Yolanda Simonelli was an avid collector of antique dolls, an active member of the National Institute of American Doll Artists, as well as a published author in several antique doll journals and magazines. Her commentaries offered histories, collecting advice, creative insight and overall informative acuity in sharing her love, passion and connoisseurship of dolls.
Most of Simonelli’s dolls were purchased in the 1960s and ’70s, many with handwritten notes and / or tags citing the place and date of acquisition. The vast array of her dolls to be presented for sale include German and French bisque heads, character dolls, artist dolls, composition examples, wax dolls, china heads, portrait dolls and crèche figures.
There will also be a small collection of antique cast-iron toys as well as some vintage trains.
The auction will be online only beginning at 1p.m. Eastern. Previews will be held at Leighton Galleries, located at 6C Pearl Court, Allendale, N.J., the week of the auction on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, the day of the sale. For more information contact Diana Aberback at 201-327-8800.
