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Pearce reiterates this notion of loss in relation to possessions as accumulated
collections:
Attention to a collection is matched, as we ought to expect, by suffering caused by
its loss. Such possessions are part of the self and therefore their loss is felt as a
lessening of self…. It becomes clear that for collectors collections are… the
extended self. We feel about our collections as if they were part of our physical
selves and we identify with them: loss of collections brings the same grief and the
same sense of deprivation which accompanies other bereavements. 87
The humanisation of dolls, therefore, exacerbates this sense of extraordinary
attachment to possessions and the grief felt for lost dolls is consequently
increased.
Furthermore, in my experience, it is highly usual that an adult collector
will accumulate the dolls of her childhood. Sometimes it may be that she
retains her childhood doll and, because of her love for it, wishes to
accentuate that joy by adding companions. Alternatively, a collection will
begin with the desire to replace a doll that has been lost or given away over
the years, eventuating in an attempt to not only recover that one memorable
object but to overcompensate for its loss by acquiring every doll in the
original range, dolls that were desired but never before possessed.
* This is why I began my own collections, replacing my lost childhood dolls and then accumulating
many more. My largest collection, therefore, comprises dolls from the 1960s and 1970s. For a
while, in order to raise the capital I needed to buy all that I wanted, I bought and sold dolls to many
other collectors who professed to collecting dolls for the same reason.
*
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