Pediophobia or Collectibles?

By Elizabeth Stewart   |   April 15, 2025
A collectible or a nightmare? Depends on who you’re asking…

Confession! I have a doll phobia, and there’s a name for that: “pediophobia,” an intense irrational fear of a humanoid form when appearing too realistic, seemingly too close to becoming one of US. In fact, the more realistic the doll, the more frightened I become. Thus, when JP sent me that shocking photo of a doll lacking an eye, I almost collapsed into my computer screen. First, I will explain why I had that reaction, and then I will answer my reader’s request to research and put a value on her damaged-eye doll. By the way, she wrote to me that the eye is still rolling about in the head! 

My first negative experience with a doll was in San Diego, when my longtime colleague Shawn and I were working late in our second-hand shop. At 9 pm I saw a dresser we had recently purchased glow from the bottom drawer, emitting an eerie green light. “Oh Shawn! Come down from the office!” And we both witnessed an old porcelain-faced doll in that drawer, off-gassing with a uranium-colored light emission. Now wouldn’t you be scared of dolls from that moment on?

In 1970, Masahiro Mori, an early professor of robotics, coined the term “The Uncanny Valley” – the closer AI or robots are to lifelike humans, the creepier we find them. We may experience much more fear around imitations of “being human” in 2025 with current “artificial” technology’s peaks and valleys. Dr. Mori said that ambiguity is the seat of the unease: is it one of us or is it one of THEM? If a humanoid object does something out of human character – for instance, a mechanized clown doll bending backwards in a spine-breaking jackknife and, while upside down and crablike, creeps toward you on all fours – your stomach revolts.

Many horror movies feature dolls, meant to bring on panic attacks and terror: Puppet Master, Annabelle, and, of course, Chucky. Those of us who hate to see human form maligned hate those type of movies. Like all irrational fears, no one knows the origin, but the prescription for recovery is often said to be constant exposure to the frightening phenomenon. This “cure” is not welcomed in my case. But echoing Murphy’s law, I am often called upon to appraise a doll collection.

If you didn’t have pediophobia before, you may now…

Now, to the doll I was sent via email. A California doll-maker made her in the 1980s, a lady named Maurita Earline Brohmer, she is sometimes also given as Earline Maples Brohmer. She was born in Missouri (1938-2012), relocated to Turlock, had a screen-printing business but taught doll-making classes. From 1983-2006, Doll Crafter magazine published articles authored by her about how to make a porcelain faced doll. In March of 1999, Earline presented a three-day workshop in Menlo Park at a shop named “Looking Glass Dolls & Bears,” where students could sculpt a head, hands and feet, with tools and supplies provided, for $300. Stranger than any coincidence, the very day the reader sent me that photo of Earline’s doll, it was exactly 26 years from Earline’s class in doll making.

I wrote to the Vintage Toy Shoppe (est. 1975) in Richmond, VA – one of the rare surviving doll shops – and they DO buy antique dolls. Some of their vintage dolls are pricey. For instance, dolls by German artist Annette Himstedt are 18” tall and sell from $3-4K. Then there is a 1997 limited-edition model with porcelain face, German blown-glass eyes, hand-knotted mohair wig, and a Belgian lace frilly dress selling for $4,300 at this same Richmond, Virginia Vintage Toy Shoppe. I cannot imagine paying $4,000 to be endlessly haunted.

The type of doll the reader has is indeed a porcelain-faced doll, with porcelain hands and feet. Looks like she has her original outfit, which can make a difference to a collector. The body of some dolls might be vinyl, composition (a mix of wood shavings and gesso), or resin, and some have an armature of wire with which one can bend arms and legs, such as the series called “Barefoot Children” at the Vintage Toy Shoppe in Richmond. At this point, those Barefoot Children are looking too lifelike for me to stomach. The value of the reader’s doll – if it were sent to a doll hospital to be repaired – would be $75.00. I would ask the reader to give the Vintage Doll Shop a call and ask if they know of any doll repair locations and fix up that eye before the doll scares another
poor soul!  

 

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