If you go
› What: Chattanooga Doll Club show and sale.› When: 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 16.› Where: Colonnade, 264 Catoosa Circle, Ringgold, Ga.› Admission: $5 ages 13 and older.› Phone: 706-965-6031.
The Colonnade will be all dolled up Saturday, April 16, when the Chattanooga Doll Club hosts its annual show and sale in the Ringgold, Ga., venue.
“We have 40 exhibitors from 11 states coming this year,” says Jane Heavener, club president. “There will be all kinds of dolls there, but it’s not just dolls. We’ll have doll furniture, doll clothes, dollhouses and more. We have a lady this year who does simple repairs, such as restringing dolls. If you bring your doll in, she will help you if she can. If she can’t, she’ll suggest someone who can.”
Exhibitors at the doll show display their wares on tables that fill the Colonnade’s 10,000-square-foot hall, with enough room for visitors to walk around and between vendors to see items closely.
Heavener says some visitors to the show are collectors, others are mothers or grandmothers just bringing children in to see the variety of dolls. It’s not uncommon for these older generations to point out dolls of their childhoods to their daughters and granddaughters, sharing stories about growing up with them.
Heavener says the show will offer antique dolls, composition dolls, porcelain dolls, Barbies, Madame Alexanders, American Girl, fashion dolls and reborns. Reborns are manufactured vinyl dolls that have been painted to resemble as lifelike an infant as possible.
Heavener says Martha Chase dolls, which were made in the early 1900s, and vintage Kathe Kruse dolls will be available at the doll show. Prices for these 100-year-old dolls will be the most expensive in the show.
“There are people who will walk in and the first thing they ask is, ‘Where are the Barbies?’ Others will walk right past the Barbie tables and go to the older dolls. I’ve been getting calls the past few days asking about particular dolls from collectors. I had a call asking if we would have Chatty Cathys there. I just really don’t know what vendors will bring until they arrive and set up.”
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.