What’s It Worth?: Readers curious about autograph book, wooden troll

In today’s What’s It Worth? we explore a written tradition that goes back centuries. It is a tradition most high school students are very familiar with.

Also, we visit the rocks, mountains and caves of the Scandinavian countries in search of information on their famous mythical beings — trolls.

Q. I have a small collection of mainly 19th century autograph books.

They are fascinating, and some of the sentiments are delightful. The one I’m sending a photo of is about seven inches wide and has a decorative celluloid cover. These little books seem to have fallen out of favor somewhere along the line. I have found very few dating from the 20th century. What can you tell me about them? — Robyn in Kennewick

A. Books of autographs and sentimental remembrances go way back to the Renaissance in Germany.

University students and faculty members exchanged these books, perhaps as early as 1450. At first, they were just loose leaf pages the owner would put together in any order desired.

A lot of creativity went into them from the earliest days. The tradition came to America with German immigrants as early as the American Revolution. By the 1800s, the custom was widespread in this country.

Robyn’s observation that she finds very few from the 20th century is quite accurate. By the end of the 1890s, something else began to replace autograph books in high schools and colleges.

It was the yearbook or school annual. Thousands of Tri-City students will receive their yearbooks during the next few weeks as graduation day approaches.

The same kind of sentiments and well wishes used by friends in the previous centuries will fill those yearbooks and many will cherish them as important mementos. Many of our readers still have theirs from years gone by.

But the world changes, and the print yearbook may now be making way for the “virtual” or online-only yearbook. In fact, the number of American colleges and universities producing a yearbook has dropped about 40 percent in the past 15 years or so.

As to these 19th century autograph books, they tend to be not very expensive and are mainly collected for the glimpses they provide into an era now long past. Values can range from $10 up to as much as $100 or more for a very decorative and unusual example.

Q. Our wooden troll is about 7 inches tall and was made by Anton Sveen of Norway. What is the collector market like for these? — Michelle in Pasco

A. Hand-carved trolls are quite collectible, and we’ll get to valuations in a bit. First, let’s explore trolls and their world.

In Scandinavian folklore, trolls go back to the very earliest legends and sagas. The simplest description of a troll is a supernatural being, living far away from humans and not very friendly to people when their paths cross.

That can be confusing, because trolls are not always grotesque and can sometimes even look like humans. They live in caves and rocks and are generally considered dangerous. Trolls can be scared away by lightning and the sound of church bells.

As legendary creatures, trolls have a long history of being depicted in folk art. Modern trolls (it isn’t quite right to call them dolls) are made by companies like Ny Form of Norway and individual artists such as the carver of this troll.

Anton Sveen (Norway, 1914-2009) lived most of his life in the small hamlet of Lora, in the mountain district. An expert carver, he turned his attention to trolls early on and built a career that eventually involved his entire family in the production process.

His wood figures became extremely popular, and their values rose as the worldwide interest in anything troll grew in the late 20th century.

The design and clothing of this troll is typical of Sveen’s work. It is made from birch and has a natural patina-like finish applied. These were sold by specialty retailers in Norway, on Norwegian cruise ships and at selected shops around the world.

Values are high and seem to be going up. This pipe-smoking troll with walking stick would bring between $600 and $750.

Remember though, he is a troll. Cute maybe, but thought to be dangerous!

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 6:26 AM with the headline "What’s It Worth?: Readers curious about autograph book, wooden troll."