I am helping with a charity auction, writing the catalog for bidders and someone has donated (donor is unavailable to help me) two large "dolls" - one that is like an old european santa, the other similar but with a blue velvet outfit with a moon and stars motif, and a real fur vest. The pics are bad - the Santa looks disheveled because I was rushed, but he's quite beautiful and the "wizard" has one of his feet wrapped for storage.

I am trying to figure out if these are homemade dolls or something else. Is there any way to tell? A place to look for a mark or?? What do I call them? Some term that I can use for the auction book? How do I determine value?

The heads, hands and feet are all ceramic. The fabrics seem to be first quality as do the hair and beards. Any guidance you can give me is appreciated.

I don't have much to offer in the way of help. Usually if
you have a couple of 'key words', its easy to google things. But so many kinds of Santas, I wouldn't know where to start on this one without a marking. The wizard might be easier. I sure hope someone can identify them. It'd be interesting to know if they are valuable and really old.
Please let us know if you find out anything.

Karen

Hopefully someone who knows about these kind of dolls with chime in. I really just want to know what to call them and an idea of how to value them. It's an auction so they will only be worth what someone pays, but I don't want to say they are worth some amount that is too high or too low.