Bild Lilli Doll, ca. 1955
GUEST: I was given this doll by my parents. They used to go to Europe and bring back foreign dolls. And I was probably about eight or nine years old.
APPRAISER: And where did they purchase her in Europe, do you know?
GUEST: In Germany.
APPRAISER: What's her name?
GUEST: Her name is Lilli.
APPRAISER: Now, when you played with her, did your friends have Bild Lillis, too?
GUEST: No, they all had Barbies with dark hair and bathing suits. And my Barbie had a black-and-white dress, and I couldn't take off the shoes and I couldn't change her earrings, and... (sighs) I was kinda disappointed in her, 'cause I wanted a real Barbie, but my parents wouldn't buy one.
APPRAISER: So what we have here today is a Bild Lilli made in Germany. Bild Lilli was a doll made in the 1950s through 1964 by a company called Greiner and Hausser. And she is actually fashioned after a cartoon character for the Bild-Zeitung magazine. And it was sort of a gossip magazine. Reinhard Beuthien did the cartoon, and she was, um, she used her good looks to her best advantage. But she was fun and sassy and she was very fashionable. She was sold to gentlemen, like, in smoke shops and so forth. And they would put 'em on the dashboard of their car, or in the cockpit of their airplane. She's all pretty and curvy.
GUEST: I don't think my parents knew that.
APPRAISER: They didn't, because what happened...
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: ...German children, and even German women, started wanting this doll because she was pretty. In the late '50s, Ruth Handler, who is of Mattel, one of the founders of Mattel, she was in Lucerne, Switzerland, with her daughter Barbara, and they see this doll in the shop window and they buy it. You can see Barbie was fashioned a lot like her. There actually ended up being a lawsuit between the makers of the Bild Lilli and Mattel...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...for pretty obvious reasons. They settled out of court. And then in 1964, Mattel bought the rights to the doll. Did she have other clothes?
GUEST: Nope, this was the only outfit she had.
APPRAISER: She has on this beautiful dress that you were wishing was a black-and-white-striped bathing suit, and you got a black-and-white cocktail dress. But how do we know it's original to her? One thing we can do is look at her snaps, and you will see that it has P-R-Y-M. All the original clothes will have that brand of snap on them. And not only is it her dress, it is a rare dress to find. I've been doing this show for 13 or 14 years.
GUEST: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And I have never seen a Bild Lilli.
GUEST: (inhales) Super!
APPRAISER: She came in two sizes. There was a seven-inch model and a 12-inch model.
GUEST: Oh. Oh, okay!
APPRAISER: And guess which one everybody wants if they collect Bild Lillis?
GUEST: Do they want this one?
APPRAISER: They want the bigger one.
GUEST: Ooh! Cool! So cool! (laughs)
APPRAISER: So the retail value on your doll in today's market, because of the rare dress, she would retail somewhere between $3,800 and $4,500.
GUEST: Mm. Hm, I guess I'll take her rather than a Barbie. (both laugh)
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: Insurance value?
APPRAISER: Insurance value, I would probably put around $5,000 to $5,200. An early Barbie from the same period is going to probably sell for about double what a Bild Lilli will.
$3,800 Retail
$5,200 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
