Bad Dog! Naughty Puppy Mangles $65,000 Doll!
Despite having its right foot gnawed off by a rambunctious pup, a rare bisque doll sells for more than $65,000 at auction.
We've all heard the old childhood excuse “My dog ate my homework”? But how often do you hear “My dog ate my antique”?
A family in the United Kingdom was cleaning out their mother’s house and found a familiar bisque-headed doll that was originally their grandmother’s. They remembered seeing the doll sitting on their mother’s sofa—and how the family dog, as a puppy, chewed off one of the doll’s feet!
Despite the chomping, the family's rare bisque doll recently sold for more than $65,000 at auction. “It’s amazing that it made that amount of money, but it is a beautiful example of something that is very rare," said Kathy Taylor of Vectis Auctions which sold the doll.
Made in 1910 by the German firm Kämmer & Reinhardt, this variety of doll only comes up for sale every 20-30 years, the auction house said. Even with the mangled right foot, the doll was in great demand, far exceeding its presale estimate of $15,000-$21,000.
Most bisque dolls have a head made of bisque porcelain and a body made of another material. Bisque is unglazed porcelain with a matte finish, giving the doll a realistic skin-like texture. An extremely rare and unique Kämmer & Reinhardt 108 bisque head character doll sold for about $308,000 in 2014 at Bonhams.
