Monday, November 22, 2010

$1 Baggie Dollhouse Find

At a recent antique show, rooting around in a dealer's box of bargain-priced "junque," I found this baggie full of broken dollhouse furniture, priced at just one dollar. (It doesn't look like much here, but just wait...)


The pieces were clearly very old, German-made circa the 1890s-1910. On a closer, surreptitious inspection, I discovered all the bits were there, and they weren't really broken, just unglued. Over the past century, the animal-based glue dried out and gave way.


It was the work of a couple of minutes for the pieces to be reassembled, and ta-da: here they are!


The 4 inch tall chair is made of red stained, gold gilt trimmed wood and pressed cardboard, while the faux wood grained sideboard  is in a much smaller scale at 3 1/2 inches, and fits perfectly into my hard-to-furnish 10 inch tall dollhouse.


Not a bad find for a buck!

9 comments:

  1. I would have passed over it. You obviously have to have a trained eye. Good work!

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  2. the sideboard is adorable! job well done.

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  3. Thank you! I should probably admit, though, that it was my mom who did the reassembling...

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  4. Great finds and well put together!So what did the two squiggly pieces and the thing that looks like a tiny shelf turn out to be?

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  5. Thanks! The two squiggly pieces appeared to be furniture legs from some unrelated item. We cut them down to make legs for the sideboard. The tiny thing that looks like a shelf is actually a miniscule piano: that was a surprise.

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  6. you score yet again! love that last pic of your little dolls :) happy thanksgiving!

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  7. Now that you mention it I can see the piano shape-wonder how tiny the house it was made to sit in must be,lol.

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  8. You might be interested in an auction being held by The Potomack Company Dec. 11, 2010 of 26 dollhouses given to Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden in Alexandria, Va. My information came from Antique Trader.

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