Dolls — why do we find them scary?

uncanny valley.

Karen Staniland has always loved dolls.

When she was a girl, her mum sold all but two of her dolls in an auction. Once she had a bit of spare cash, Staniland began collecting them to make up for those she’d lost.

She’s not sure exactly where doll fear comes from, but as technology becomes more realistic, the more unrealistic looking dolls might seem scarier, Staniland said.

‘‘It’s probably making a lot of kids – little kids, particularly – terribly scared.

‘‘I had a child come and she went down and had a look at my doll room and came tearing up the stairs. There’re two many eyes, you see.’’

Now she asks mothers how their children react to dolls before letting them venture into her doll room.

Dolls are important and increasingly misunderstood, Staniland says.

With few doll-making tutors and not enough young people interested in old-fashioned dolls, the making and repairing of them is a dying art.

Now, cheap mass-produced Bratz and Barbie dolls are the norm, Staniland says.

‘‘If you go to an antique auction and there are dolls there, they go for next to nothing.

‘‘It’s quite sad.’’

Dolls preserve history like few other things can. Each provides a snapshot of the culture and society of the time in which it was made.

Those made during World War II are made from the same rationed fabric as people’s clothes.

The delicately stitched lace dresses made in the 1800s would have taken days.

‘‘A lot of it would have been done by candlelight, because they didn’t have lights.’’

Even the ventriloquist-like dolls with wide, skewed eyes remind some of their childhood, Staniland said.

‘‘Somebody will buy them.’’