Woman finds rare, 19th century porcelain doll on Scottish beach

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A woman in Scotland recently found a treasure at least 100 years old on her local beach.

Nikki Halkerston, 45, from Dundee, Scotland, was looking for sea glass, pottery and shells on Broughty Ferry Beach on Thursday when she saw a small, one-inch porcelain doll.

"I was just looking for a certain type of shell and it caught my eye and I just thought 'oh wow'!" Halkerston told SWNS. 

"There wasn't a mark on it, it wasn't even dirty or chipped and it's probably been in the sea for years and years," she added. "I was really shocked and surprised. My husband was with me and helps me with glass and shells but I told him I'd found a Frozen Charlotte and he was like 'what?'"

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According to SWNS, the doll is called a Frozen Charlotte, which is based on a 19th-century American folk tale about a woman who refuses to dress warmly on her trip to a New Year’s Eve ball -- despite her mother’s wishes -- and freezes to death on the 20-mile journey. 

Nikki Halkerston was out looking for sea glass and shells on Broughty Ferry Beach in Scotland when she found this one-inch Frozen Charlotte from the 19th century. (SWNS)

According to The Washington Post, the dolls were originally just supposed to be bath toys imported from Germany, but because they "resembled small, white corpses," Americans called them Frozen Charlottes after the folk story.

SWNS reported that the dolls were made between 1850 and 1920.

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Halkerston said that though she knew the dolls were called Frozen Charlottes, she didn’t realize at first how special her find was until she posted a picture online.

The porcelain Frozen Charlotte dolls got their name from an American folk tale about a young woman who froze to death on her way to a New Year’s Eve ball because she didn’t dress warmly enough, as her mother told her to. (SWNS)

"I got about 450 people saying 'wow that's amazing' and it's really rare to find them in one piece like that, usually they're broken and you find a head or an arm," Halkerston told SWNS. "You find all sorts of things but this is my favorite and probably the rarest find from what I can see of the reaction for people who do it all the time."

According to SWNS, other people said the Frozen Charlotte was a "bucket list" find and someone else told Halkerston that they would trade their sea glass collection for the doll.

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SWNS reported that today, Frozen Charlotte dolls sell for between about $21.23 USD (£15) and $141.54 USD (£100), though Halkerston thinks her find is on the higher end, since it’s in such good condition. 

Halkerston decided to keep the doll, in part, because her daughter Melissa (pictured) likes it. (SWNS)

However, her daughter Melissa likes the doll, so Halkerston said she planned to keep it.

"I was thinking at first I was going to sell it but now I know it's so unique I wouldn't, I think I would keep it," Halkerston said. "I think it's amazing it's lived through that amount of time in such good condition."