Extensive collection of antique dolls from Alberta museum up for auction
Extensive collection of antique dolls from Alberta museum up for auction
Extensive collection of antique dolls from Alberta museum up for auction
Linda Schuler loves dolls. It started as a childhood passion, and eventually turned into a 15-year business venture.
In 2006, Schuler and her husband were driving down a Saskatchewan highway and saw a sign for a doll museum. They decided to check it out.
"I was totally in awe of the whole thing. It was just fantastic to view that museum, and (we) just totally fell in love with it right off the bat," she said.
After returning to Drumheller, Schuler said she couldn't stop thinking about the museum.
"Finally my husband said, 'Why don't you ask those ladies if they'd be interested in selling it?'"
Schuler said she got up the courage to ask, and to her surprise they were ready to part with their business.They packed up the doll museum on Mother's Day and drove it back to Drumheller.
Valley Doll Museum opened on June 6, 2007.
Over the years, Schuler added more dolls to the museum – which she ran while also helping her husband with his locksmith business.
"The Ralph Klein dolls [of the world] that he had in city hall in Calgary when he was mayor, I acquired those as well, those were donated to me," she said. "The Glenbow Museum in Calgary and Heritage Park, they didn't want them, so they found a home in my museum."
Fifteen years later, Schuler is retiring from the doll business, and is auctioning off her inventory with the help of an Edmonton auction company.
"I love my dolls but I just got to the point in life where I have health problems and can't do both jobs at the same time," she said. "One of them had to go and the doll museum is really a lot of work for one person so that's the one that unfortunately had to go."
'JAMMED TO THE RAFTERS'
The museum's inventory was moved from Drumheller to Beck Auctions' east Edmonton location in preparation for Wednesday's auction.
"We've sold many collections, but this is the most extensive collection, probably. It's literally jammed to the rafters in here with dolls," said Beck Auctions President Clinton Beck.
Beck estimates there are more than 1,000 dolls to auction off, as well as furniture, clothing and other museum items.
"We have dolls that are cultural dolls, we have dolls from different countries, we have Victorian dolls, we have antique dolls from the 1920s," said Beck.
Many collectors will be looking to fill the missing pieces of their collections, Beck predicted.
"We've had calls from the United States, from Europe, from all over Canada, there's tremendous interest in this auction tonight."
The entire collection is available to view and bid on online.
The first lot of items in the doll auction will close at 6 p.m. Wednesday, with the auction ending at midnight.
Privacy and civil liberties experts are sharing their concerns Tuesday with MPs studying the RCMP's yearslong use of spyware in major investigations, calling the previously undisclosed tools 'extremely intrusive' and criticizing the RCMP's belated disclosure of its use of these tools.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says through his throne speech that more can be done to ease health system pressures, but is not yet offering up any new solutions.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to turn the news of an FBI search of his Florida estate to his benefit, citing the investigation in text messages and emails soliciting political donations from his supporters.
For the first time in eight years, Canadian warships are not involved in either of two NATO naval task forces charged with patrolling European waters and defending against Russian threats.
The serious shortage of nurses and doctors has put the spotlight on a long overdue reform to the rules governing entrance requirements for foreign-trained professionals, says former NDP leader Tom Mulcair in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Two new features being introduced on WhatsApp, which will let you choose who can see when you're active, and to leave groups silently, will start rolling out to all WhatsApp users this month.
Calgary police are warning citizens about an extortion scam that sees victims sent graphic and violent photos to intimidate them into handing over their hard-earned money.
The Government of Canada has negotiated a settlement with Beardy’s and Okemasis’ Cree Nation for lost salaries and annuities promised to chiefs and headmen under Treaty 6.
The search for a man who went missing while swimming near Pelican Pointe on Last Mountain Lake, Sask. will continue on Tuesday, according to a release from Southey RCMP.
A massive effort began Tuesday to transport food to the southern Newfoundland communities that had been cut off for days from the rest of the island because of raging wildfires.
As the doctor wait list hits 74,000 in New Brunswick, one woman is turning to social media with her pitch to try to find a replacement after losing her own doctor.
A number of people are living in tents in a small park just off Sackville Drive in Lower Sackville, N.S., as they struggle to cope with inflation and find affordable housing.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says through his throne speech that more can be done to ease health system pressures, but is not yet offering up any new solutions.
For more than two years, federal public servants have been doing their jobs from home. Now, amid pressure to return to the office, they’re asking why that needs to change.
An ambitious plan aimed at ending homelessness in Waterloo region went before regional council on Tuesday, giving members the chance to hear the latest plans for interim housing solutions.
An 84-year-old Timmins man is facing a list of firearms-related charges following an incident at an undeveloped lot involved in an ongoing dispute with city bylaw officials, police said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says through his throne speech that more can be done to ease health system pressures, but is not yet offering up any new solutions.
Manitoba’s police watchdog has concluded its investigation into an officer-involved shooting in Thompson last year, and determined that the officer’s decision to shoot the man was “reasonable, necessary and justified in law.”
Privacy and civil liberties experts are sharing their concerns Tuesday with MPs studying the RCMP's yearslong use of spyware in major investigations, calling the previously undisclosed tools 'extremely intrusive' and criticizing the RCMP's belated disclosure of its use of these tools.
Tents and other structures are being removed from a stretch of East Hastings Street on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside starting Tuesday, the city confirmed.
The search is still on for a missing Port Alberni woman, and friends and family are hoping that a new podcast revolving around the 40-year-old's disappearance will help keep the investigation in people's minds.
