Living

Sunday, Jun. 29, 2008

A doll's house

The home of Arlene Royse is filled with collectibles; dolls rule, however, and the quirkiest are Scarey Anns, made in the 1920s in Atascadero

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“Somebody once told me that if you have three of anything, you have a collection,” says Arlene “Rose” Royse.

If that’s true, Royse has enough collections in her Squire Canyon home to fill a few sizeable warehouses.

Chicken-themed wall ornaments and dish towels decorate the kitchen, next to a display of children’s painted tin tea sets. Teddy bears sit on a bedroom shelf. Porcelain and glass crowd china huts.

Head to the bathroom and you’ll spot an eccentric collection of ladies’ restroom signs.

Plastic Pez candy dispensers. Salvation Army pins. A flock of live canaries in shades of lemon and tangerine.

Like a museum

“A lot of people have said it’s like going to a museum when they come to my house,” Royse, 67, says with a laugh.

Royse and her husband, Ervin, live on a 130-acre parcel south of San Luis Obispo.

Over 37 years, the couple and Royse’s three children, now grown, have filled the 3,500-square-foot cedar home with every kind of collectible including dishware, glassware and children’s toys.

Although Royse hasn’t counted the collections for years, she says each purchase is photographed. “If I walk into the room, I know if anything is missing or out of place,” she said.

Royse started collecting old-fashioned dolls about two decades ago, inspired by a lifelong love of crafts. Now dolls rule the house.

“I was deprived as a child, so I was making up for lost time,” said the former doll club president, who moved to Grover Beach with her parents in 1945 when she was in first grade. Her father, an auto mechanic, opened Grover City Garage at 10th Street and Grand Avenue when the road had yet to be paved.

A classmate at Arroyo Grande High School introduced her to the quirkiest dolls in her vast collection, Scarey Anns.

Produced in Atascadero

Advertised as “America’s Famous Hair Raising Doll,” Scarey Ann dolls—the brainchild of a retired dentist and his wife—were manufactured in Atascadero by the Poppy Doll Co. in the 1920s, Royse said.

The wooden toys feature cylin-

drical bodies, peg limbs and round heads painted with big eyes and beaming smiles.

Sticking out of the top of each doll’s head is a shock of horsehair. Press a lever in the doll’s back, and the hair shoots up in fright—hence the name Scarey Ann.

“I just fell in love with Scarey Anns immediately because they’re so different,” said Royse, whose collection includes dolls dressed as Chinese immigrants, clowns and Santa Claus. “I’m much more interested in the odd and unusual dolls.”

She also collects another toy made by the company in the ’20s. Shaped like circus animals, Twistums have twistable bodies of wooden beads connected by piano wire.

Examples of the dolls are now on display at The Carlton Hotel in downtown Atascadero, said Jim Wilkins, president of the Atascadero Historical Society.

Royse’s doll collection also includes 30 teddy bears, dozens of Raggedy Ann dolls and about 700 Nancy Ann Storybook dolls, popular in the 1940s and ’50s.

There are 3-inch-tall Jump Jump dolls wearing wry expressions, and Depressionera Ramp Walkers that can “walk” down slopes. An entire section is devoted to dolls dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.

When possible, Royse said, she picks up paraphernalia related to her favorite toys.

“If there’s a children’s storybook, I have to have it,” Royse said. She shelled out $275 for a 1932 copy of “Scarey Ann (The Wooden Doll) and the Cookie Man.”

Handmade dolls

Royse also has made about 50 dolls herself, ranging from porcelain beauties to a wooden doll modeled after the narrator in “Hitty, Her First Hundred Years.” The 1929 children’s book, told from an antique doll’s perspective, is popular with toy lovers.

Royse modeled one porcelain doll after a photograph of herself as a smiling 3-year-old. It sits beside her bronzed baby shoes on the mantle.

“I don’t make dolls anymore,” she explained, “because if you breathe the porcelain dust it can be pretty toxic to your lungs. It’s a lot of hard work, too.”

It’s a tribute to Royse’s dedication that she’s turned the rest of her family into collectors as well.

Her husband, a retired credit union executive, got into the act after accompanying his wife to flea markets. He’s filled his share of cabinets and shelves with Depression- era blue drinking glasses, pitchers and shot glasses etched with images of sailboats.

“When I was buying them for my mother, they were 19 cents apiece,” Ervin, 84, recalled. Now the glassware retails for $25 to $150 per item, he said.

Added Royse with a laugh, “I created a monster.”

Children’s collections

The collecting bug has also spread to her children, who all live on the Squire Canyon property.

Royse’s daughter Laurie Fiant once collected Beanie Baby stuffed animals. Son Wesley Fiant collected beer glasses, and Stephen Fiant, her youngest son, has outstripped his siblings with a large selection of Pez dispensers.

“He’s turned out to be the biggest collector,” said Royse, who now has moved on from doll collecting to other hobbies.

“I’ve downsized considerably,” she said, adding that she’s become disenchanted by Internet bidding wars. She’s sold off her collection of Barbie dolls and all but a few sets of miniatures.

Now a quilter

Her current obsession is quilting, a craft she picked up in earnest about 10 years ago. She stockpiles fabric, thread and trim in a sunny sewing room complete with cutting table and state-of-the-art quilting machines.

Royse was the featured artist at the Templeton Outdoor Quilt Show earlier this month.

“I’ve always enjoyed sewing, including embroidery work,” explained Royse, who is president of the Olde Town Quilters of Nipomo. “But I love doing a variety. I never stick with a particular style.”

One of her favorite subjects? Images of her favorite dolls, of course.

Even though Royse says she’s through collecting, it’s hard to imagine her quitting completely.

“I go from one thing to the next,” she said, adding, “I always get totally involved in what I’m doing.”

Her husband doesn’t mind.

“I’m just going to encourage her as long as I can, and we’ll build a barn if we need to,” he said with a smile.