From Attic Finds to a Calling

Jimmy and Jenna West didn't set out to build a business—they set out to rescue memories. Weekend after weekend, they combed yard sales and estate auctions for the tin robots, wind-up cars, and porcelain dolls they remembered from their grandparents' stories. A cracked music box that still sang, a teddy with threadbare paws, a bisque doll with the faintest blush on her cheeks—each find felt like a small time machine. Friends began asking the Wests to help identify and restore family heirlooms, and soon their sideline of gentle cleanings, careful cataloging, and provenance sleuthing grew into a reputation. When the couple realized they were spending every spare hour matching toys to their histories and families to their pasts, they gave it a name: Toy Collector’s Incorporated.

Preserving Play, One Heirloom at a Time

Today, Toy Collector's Incorporated specializes in antique toys and dolls from the late 1800s through mid-century—pieces chosen for craftsmanship, cultural significance, and the stories they carry. Jimmy leads acquisitions and restoration, favoring reversible methods and museum-safe materials; Jenny curates collections, tracks provenance, and helps clients understand how to display and care for fragile treasures. Together they bridge scholarship and sentiment, pairing each item with context—maker marks, regional styles, original packaging when possible—so a toy is never “just” a toy. Their mission is simple: preserve the magic of play so it can be passed on—carefully, authentically, and with all the wonder intact.

Lila Mae's Sunday Doll

In 1916, Jimmy's great-grandmother, Lila Mae West, spotted the doll pictured in a general store window near the courthouse square. Money was tight, but her father saved a few coins each week until Christmas, when the doll—already dressed in a peach coat and bonnet sewn by the shopkeeper's wife - came home in a hatbox. Lila Mae named her Sunday because she was only allowed to hold her after church. The doll later traveled with Lila Mae when she married, survived a coal-stove winter without a crack, and spent decades displayed high on a wardrobe. With each generation she was passed down with the same instruction: “Keep her clean, keep her safe, and keep her story.” She eventually reached Jimmy and Jenny—the seed of what became Toy Collector's Incorporated. This piece is best identified as a German bisque-head toddler doll, circa 1910-1920, manufactured by Kämmer & Reinhardt.