300 Impossible Things Before Noon: Antique Dolls and Toys by Florence Theriault

This book portrays 350 color photographs of dolls and toys made by very imaginative doll and toy makers over the past 150 years. Includes list of prices realized at auction.

Foreward:

"There is no use trying," said Alice. "One can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
- Lewis Carroll

Those grown-ups fortunate enough to live and work and play in the world of antique playthings have no problem understanding the Queen. In her world and theirs, nothing seems impossible. Dolls and toys merely simple objects? Absurd! To the child, they are an introduction to a world of magic, inanimate objects made animate by imagination, intimate by whispered dreams. To the adult collector, dolls and toys are a connection with the possibilities of childhood, still faintly echoing in their sensible grown-up world.

This book pays tribute to the imaginations of doll and toy makers of the past 150 years who have created seemingly impossible playthings. Sculpt an eye in one direction and a doll is saying one thing, turn the lips downward and change the depth of the eyes, and the face speaks other messages. Pose a pair of elegant dancers, arm and arm, and give them movement, but remember that they must be wearing clothes of the Court and the movement must accommodate their extravagant garb. Create a simple tin toy, so simple it will sell for pennies, but make it vivid and brilliant and amusing as though it came from the workshops of a King. Impossible? Not for the elves of toyland and not for the designers, inventors, sculptors, and manufacturers of the world of play.

There is only one thing that is impossible about the world of dolls and toys. And that is to say "enough". In the end, it was impossible to limit the contents to the title, having only 300 impossible things. There are, actually, closer to 400. The Queen would have understood.

Florence Theriault
April, 2003