News from Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's Home

Follow this link for info on the snow drop walk, when Hever repopens for the season Feb. 9th.  Here is a little breath of spring from the cold heart of winter.


https://www.hevercastle.co.uk/whats-on/snowdrop-walk/?utm_source=Snowdrop%20Walk%202019&utm_medium=Bulletin&utm_campaign=Snowdrop%20Walk%202019&utm_content=Snowdrop%20Walk%202019

An Oldie but Goodie, and a Shorty

Bewitched and Bathory

 

 

Another reference on Erzebet on Elizabeth Montgomery’s show; the Crone of Cawdor arrives to steal others’ youth to retain her own.  Aside from the obvious allusion to Macbeth and the Hag or Crone myth, the story as told by Samantha has the Cone start out as a young woman cursed to be a hag and locked up in a tower on a mountain peak in Carpathia for eternity.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it.  Also, note the similarities to Rapunzel

Ten Iconoclastic Rules for Collecting Dolls; Thinking outside the Doll Box

Ten Iconoclastic Rules for Collecting Dolls; Thinking outside the Doll Box

 

Let me begin by paraphrasing George Orwell, author if 1984 and other works, from his essay “Politics and the English Language.”  He outlines his ten rules for good writing, no doubt formed from his own school of hard knocks, learned during his days of writing communist propaganda.  Basically, he said in about the tenth rule that writers should break the other 9 before they wrote anything “barbarous.”

 

I’m a big fan of Orwell and literary freedom; I don’t like collector fascists either, or collector totalitarians.  To each her own, or in the immortal words of Sly Stone, “different strokes for different folks.”

 

So, here are my ten unorthodox rules for collecting dolls.

 

1. Buy what you like.  This is the most sacred rule for any collector to follow.  Buy what you like, and opportunity and investment will come.  As you buy what you like, your taste may change or not.  You will learn about all kinds of dolls and related items, you will study, read, and improve your critical thinking skills and even your communication skills as you explore what you love.
2. Read freely of other collectors’ advice; take that advice sparingly.  Don’t let a doll snob, or even a well meaning collector, talk you out of a doll you love.  If you can afford it, you like it, have plans for it, are inspired by it, made happy by it, go for it.   Your collection is a kind of autobiography; it says things about you, and those things are good.
3. To paraphrase Mary Randolph Carter, author of The American Junk Series of books, magazine contributor, Internet entrepreneur, and executive at Ralph Lauren, never ask where am I going to put it?
4. Condition is not everything; if you have a chance to be gifted, or to buy,  a fabulous doll that is damaged but very reasonably priced, don’t turn it down.  What if that bargain baby that needs TLC is a Bru, or a Marque?  Stranger things have happened.
5. Don’t buy just for investment.  If you want to speculate on investments, become a day trader, buy bitcoin, trade in stocks, etc.   Like art, dolls and collectibles should be lived with first.  A good collection ages like fine wine.
6. More is more.  I’m sorry; it just is.  Collectors don’t like the “H” word.    Simplifying and downsizing what you like to please others merely causes you more stress.  Collecting what you like in any number you are comfortable with brings joy. 
7. All Dolls are Collectible.  CF Genevieve Angione’s wonderful book of that title.
8. Donate dolls to charity, or contribute to Toys for Tots.  Spread the word that dolls are good, and that they teach children many valuable skills.  Dolls are probably the oldest toy, and perhaps the oldest human cultural artifact. 
9. Stay away from haunted object and creepy doll crap.  Don’t let these naysayers talk you out of your dolls.  I love monster and Halloween dolls all in good fun; I feel happy and safe when I’m surrounded by my collection, writing about it and caring for it.
10. As Mr. Orwell wrote, break any of these rules before you do something barbarous, like throw away a doll.  Never, ever do that!! The Doll is always Greater than the Sum of its dolly Parts.

 

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Syward 2019; A Very Special Post by David Levy

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Syward 2019; A Very Special Post by David Levy: Skyward January 2019           For those of us who were alive back then, where were you on Christmas Eve, in the year 1968?    I rem...

Happy New Year!

Peace and prosperity in 2019!

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: First Ever Virtual Doll Convention

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Frozen retells the Snow Queen, an Allegory for Erzebet

Watching the "Frozen" Christmas special tonight, it struck me that this Disney retelling of the Snow Queen has a lot in common with the quest to find and tell the truth about Erzebet Bathory.  The original Snow Queen was an evil creature that brought death and devastation.  She is reinvented and given a chance at redemption in the Disney story; she actually reminds me of Rowan Mayfair in the Mayfair Witches stories by Anne Rice.  In The Witching Hour, Rowan has murderous powers she can't seem to control, just like the heroine of Frozen.

My book based on Erzebet, painting is not of her, though often
attributed as her portrait

Erzebet's history is also being revisited by Tony Thorne, K. Craft, and even me.  I've actually written YA book retelling her story and making her more accessible and explicable to posterity.


Time reveals all after a while, but femme fatales, murderous queens, and the Morgan Le Fey's of literature and myth will always attract us.  Lilith will always be more interesting than Eve.


Medusa will always have her followers, and Kali her worshippers.  Akasha will always be beloved by some.





This holiday season, may you all find peace, and I'd love to hear your take on Erzebet and women of the 17th century.


Merry Christmas!!

Public Domain