Born in Bulington, New Jersey, Jan Foulke has always had a fondness for dolls. She recalls, “Many happy hours of my childhood were spent with dolls as companions, since we lived on a quiet country road, and until I was nine, I was an only child. My bedroom was filled with dolls and their accessories, and my mother sewed doll clothes for me.”

Jan received a B.A. from Columbia Union College, where she was named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and graduated with high honors. Jan taught for 12 years in the Montgomery County, Maryland, school system, and also supervised student teachers in English for the University of Maryland, where she did graduate work in Education and English.

Jan and her husband, Howard, who photographs the dolls for her books both antiqued for a hobby, and in 1972, they decided to open a small antique shop of Jan’s curiosity about the history of old dolls. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was quite interested in dolls, and that sparked Jan’s curiosity about the history of old dolls. Gradually, the stock in their antique shop evolved into an antique doll shop. At this point, they realized the need for more accurate and reliable doll information, and their writing career began.

Jan and Howard Foulke now dedicate all of their professional time to the world of dolls: writing and illustrating books and articles, appraising collections and individual dolls, lecturing on antique dolls, acting as consultants to museums, auctions houses and major collectors, and selling dolls by mail order, the internet and exhibits and major shows throughout the United States. They are members of the United Federation of Doll Clubs, Doll Collectors of America and past officers of the National Antique Doll Dealers Association. Jan has appeared on numerous television and radio talk shows and is often quoted in newspaper and magazine articles as the ultimate source for doll pricing, identification and trends in collecting.

Jan Foulke has written and Howard Foulke has done the photography for the following books: Kestner, King of Dollmakers; Simon & Halbig Dolls, Doll Classics, Focusing on Dolls, Effanbee Composition Dolls, Treasury of Madame Alexander Dolls, Gebruder Heubach Dolls, China Doll Collecting, German “Dolly” Collecting and Doll Buying and Selling. Jan has been a regular contributor to Doll Reader® magazine for 33 years. Her current column is the popular “Antique Q&A.”

The Foulke’s have recently joined forces with Morphy Auctions to head up the doll department, assist in the appraisal and descriptions of dolls in upcoming sales.