Antiques

	These items were given to me by my mother. She told me they belonged to her mother. I think her mother made the doll clothes. The black and white dolls both seem very similar. They seem to be made of some sort of porcelain or plaster. The arms and legs are attached with wires or rubber bands.
The back of the black doll says, "Made in Occupied Japan." The back of the white doll just says, "Made in Japan." The faces are painted on. I don't know much about the carriage except that my grandmother painted it. The other two dolls are of unknown material. They seem to be made of plastic.

1. Can anyone tell me what these particular type of dolls are called?
2. Can anyone tell me if these dolls were made by a particular company?
3. Can anyone tell me what these dolls might be made of?
4. Can anyone tell me about how old the carriage might be, or what company might have made it?

My mother tells me this clock has been in her family for many years. The face of the clock says it is a Seth Thomas clock and it says it was made in the US. The card in the back says it was manufactured in 1875, but it is handwritten by someone, so I'm not sure if it's accurate. It also says it was manufactured in Salem, Mass., but according to a book at the library, Seth Thomas operated out of Connecticut, so I'm not sure I can believe it was made in Salem. The clock's pretty neat. It doesn't work, but I have the original key and if you make it bong it sounds pretty loud and clear. The wood front has engraved decorations on it. The column tops and bottoms, as well as the feet of the clock, are all made of metal. The columns themselves seem to be made of some sort of plastic material, I'm not sure.

This necklace was given to me by my mother. She tells me it belonged to an old school teacher. The necklace was given to her along with some other costume jewelry when she was a young girl. My mother thinks it was an accident and was with the other jewelry by mistake. The latch says, "Hercules," and "Pat. Pend." The tiny beads are metal and have design markings on them. The whole strand is strung with string. The diamond-like jewels are set in a plastic mold-like thing. It looks like they were glued in to the mold. What I would really like to know is about how old this necklace might be. I have another one almost just like it but with blue opal-like stones in place of the orange ones. It's broken though. This necklace is almost wearable. I can take some of the gems from the other necklace and plug them in to the two or three missing spots and it would be complete.

These books were also given me by my mother. I'm told they belonged to my grandmother. They have very nice pictures inside. They also contain the most delightful stories! The stories are from different nations and almost all of them have a moral to them. I enjoyed reading these over and over when I was younger. The copyright date is 1920 by Olive Beaupre Miller, printed in the USA. They were published by The Bookhouse for Children Publishers. You can't find a lot of these stories anywhere nowadays!

UPDATE (1/3/98): Thanks to Suzanne & Truman Price of Monmouth, Oregon, for the following information about these books (I now have all six volumes thanks to them!):

The Bookhouse For Children series was published first in the 20's in black sets of six, in two styles, then in solid green or blue sets of 12 plus one index vol., then as a "Rainbow Set" of thirteen which started with blue and ended with various shades of green. Later it was published as a white set, without pasted down plates on the cover.

The first volume of any of these sets is the hardest to find. The black sets are very valuable. The early 13 vol. sets are about $50-70 in good or better conditon. Booksellers usually sell individual volumes for $15 to $20, although they can be found for less. There was also a grey-green Bookhouse in 6 volumes, published in the 20's right after the black ones; a gift edition with gold on the top edge.