Antique Dollhouse Food

These two sets of French or German-made dolly food date from the late 1800s - early 1900s.
They're made of hand-painted plaster, and the largest pieces measure about 2 1/2 inches across. They're a bit large for most dollhouses; perhaps they were meant for toy kitchens or doll play.

These pieces are wonderful on their own, but what makes them even more special is that most are still tied down with twine in their original packages. The boxes themselves are quite beautifully lithographed with scenes of children cooking and eating.

It's always especially exciting to discover such a fragile old toy that has survived in this condition: these were one of my greatest finds ever!

1920s Miniature Googly Tea Set

Here's one of my favorite children's tea sets: a Googly character set from the early 1920s.
Googly eyes were a popular motif on toys at that time, appearing on dolls, in illustrations, and on this little tea set, which was made in Japan. The teapot is about 2 1/4 inches tall with the lid, and is marked Nippon on the bottom, while the cups are each 3/4 of an inch tall.

Antique China Head Doll

This German-made china head doll, circa the 1870s, is the largest in my collection, measuring in at 22 inches. She has a beautiful, rosy-cheeked shoulder-plate head in minty condition, along with her china arms and legs. Her dress is a recreation, but suits her beautifully. Here she is having a cuppa with her feet up after a long day...

Armand Marseille Floradora Doll

This was my first antique doll: a 13 inch Floradora by Armand Marseille, made in Germany in the late 1800s or very early 1900s. She's a special one because she's unplayed with, and still wears her factory-original undergarments, shift, socks, and felt booties. She would have been sold this way, and her first little owner would have made her dresses, probably with help from mom and grandma. This Flora has a beautifully done bisque shoulder-plate head with stationary, painted blue glass eyes and her original human hair wig, on a cloth, rag-doll style body.

Antique German Doll

This large, 19 inch German doll is one of my very favorites. Her bisque socket head has a great chubby face, with a roll of baby fat that makes her adorable. She wears a lovely old doll dress, and has an antique human hair wig that suits her beautifully.

Frozen Charlottes

These small immobile dolls are called Frozen Charlottes, and they date from the late 1800s - early 1920s. Sometimes called bathing dolls, they were usually crudely made of china.
The tiniest in my collection measures just 1 inch tall, while the largest is 3 1/2. The first doll is atypically made of clay, while the third doll is also unusual, as it appears to be a boy, and has a small thatch of hair and gold painted boots.
Frozen Charlottes look great in groups or clustered in arrangements, and also make good dollies for larger dolls to hold.

Victorian Dollhouse Dolls

This family of small bisque dolls were made in Germany specifically for dollhouses in the late 1800s. They live in my Dunham's Cocoanut Dollhouse, which dates to the 1890s, so they feel right at home. Mom and Dad measure 6 inches tall, and are wearing their original clothing. The little all-bisque girl, made by Limbach, is 4 inches tall, and wears her original dress. She's a sweetie...

Antique China Head Dollhouse Dolls

These little German-made china head dollhouse dolls measure about 4 and 5 inches tall, and date from the early 1900s. They were sold unclothed, and little girls were meant to hone their sewing skills by making them dresses. These two came from unsold store stock: they still have their legs delicately stitched together, to prevent breakage from clacking against each other during shipping.

This slightly larger doll wears a lovely ensemble crafted for her by her owner many, many years ago.

1920s Bisque Dollhouse Dolls

I found this family (and maid) of tiny German bisque dollhouse dolls tucked away in an old candy box, half-buried in a pile of junque in a dealer's showcase. Dating from the 1920s, they measure about 3 1/2 inches tall, with the maid (on the left) being a little bit smaller.

Grandpa lost an arm in the Great War, but that's okay: grandparents are rare dollhouse figures, so we love him anyway. (And no, Grandpa was not a cross-dresser. The manufacturers used the same standard legs on both sexes for efficiency in assembly, and just hoped we wouldn't notice.)

These dolls appear to have been sold naked, although I have seen others that look as if they were factory-dressed. I keep meaning to make them some clothes, but I haven't gotten around to it yet...they've been waiting for 80 years, so hopefully they won't mind waiting a few more.

1930s Dollhouse Food

Antique and vintage dollhouse food is one of my favorite toys to collect. Not easy to find, its always especially exciting to come across a type I haven't seen before, or a set in its original box.

This set, featuring hand-molded food on metal plates, dates to the 1930s. Each plate measures about 1 1/4 inches wide. On the back of the box is its original price sticker, $1.50, from the John Wanamaker Department Store.

Antique Cracker Jack Prize

I loved Cracker Jack as a kid. Back in the 1970s, they still put cool prizes in the boxes: tiny pinball games that actually worked, cute little plastic figures that we carried in our pockets and traded with friends, tattoos and glow-in-the-dark stickers, and punch-out scenes to build. But by the late 1980s, new safety standards had been applied and the prizes were hardly fit to be called such.

I still buy a box every once in a while, hoping against reason to find something fabulous inside, but I'm always disappointed. As an adult, my love of Cracker Jack prizes was rekindled when I discovered how much better even older prizes were: toy trains, tiny china dolls, itty bitty pieces of furniture, and this, one of the most longed-for antique Cracker Jack prizes on my wish list.

Dating from the 1920s, this "Breakfast Set" consists of teeny tiny real glass dishes (a plate, bowl, and cup) along with a metal spoon, all housed in a fragile matchbox. (Talk about safety hazards!) I don't know how excited some small child was to pull this fantastic prize out of her box of Cracker Jack 80 years ago, but I sure was to find it a few months ago!

Antique Toy Stoves

I don't like to cook in real life (in fact, I don't cook at all), but for some reason I find toy stoves very appealing. They're charming toys, they reveal a lot of social history, and they're perfect teddy bear and doll accessories. Here are a few from my collection, dating from the mid-1800s
to the early 1900s.


The silver and green stove at the top is American made, and says "Novelty" on the door. It measures 8 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches tall. It's made of cast iron and some kind of metal that has oxidized to a greenish hue, and there appears to be a nickel finish on the doors. This was a wood-burning stove, and it really worked. A fire inside the stove heated the burners on top, and probably the entire stove as well!

The small red and black stove is made of tin, and I believe it's German. It measures 8 1/2 inches tall. This was a pretend-cooking-only stove. (My three china dollies and their cook are using it in another post.)

The last stove, also German, is made of sheet metal and is very large, measuring 12 inches wide by 7 inches tall, not counting the stovepipe. This was another working stove, but it heated via alcohol burners (yikes!) which slide out of the stove body . Children actually cooked in the little pans, which are original to this stove.

Antique Halloween Postcards

I've been fortunate enough to find some beautiful antique Halloween postcards at reasonable prices. These all date between 1907 and 1914. My favorite is the first one, with all the jack o' lanterns.


The message on the back of the blue card, penned by an aunt to her little niece in 1914, reads, "I hope the goblins don't get you!"

Antique Fortune Telling Games

Here are some of my favorite antique fortune telling games.
The first two are Halloween themed, with a great design of a witch and her cauldron, and date to the 1940s.

The "Fortune Telling Favor Set" is a small box that contains a set of tiny metal charms. The hostess would insert these charms into a cake, and the guests would hopefully find the charms and not swallow them! Each charm has a corresponding fortune: there's a pipe, which predicts "your pipe dreams come true"; a thimble
(spinsterhood); a baby (that's an obvious one); and several more.

The large witch game of "Hallowe'en Fortunes" is a simple spinner fortune teller. You spin the wheel, and the number that shows up in the cauldron matches a fortune printed below. I tested it this morning, spun the number 6, and it said: "Your fortune is good, you see, For you will contented be." Whew! Glad I didn't get 9: "At 50, you'll be grumpy, fat, round and very stumpy."

The last game has a very ponderous title: "Fortunescope: The Prognosticator of Human Destiny." It's another spinner type, and was printed in 1935. I love the graphics on this one, of a mysterious swami and his crystal ball.

Antique Fortune Telling Cards

Some Other Stuff I collect besides toys are vintage fortune telling cards and games. At Halloween I bring them out, and guests enjoy playing with them. Here are three fortune telling card decks, dating from about 1920 - late 1940s. I've had the best luck with Ingalls, the Wonderful Zodiac...

Antique Howard Thurston Magic Card, Program, & Book

I love vintage magic stuff, and Howard Thurston is one of my favorite magicians to collect. Here are one of his cards, a magic and fortune telling book you could order from him, and a program from one of his shows. They all date from the late 1920s - early 1930s.

Goofy Looking Bears

While I am always happy to add a high-quality, pedigreed antique Ideal or Steiff teddy bear to my collection, I have to admit that the bears that really make me smile tend to be mongrels: made by unknown makers of questionable skill, resulting in goofy and unusual creations. Here are two of my favorites. The guy with the hat, grin, and Jimmy Durante nose is a British ted from the 1930s. The somewhat startled-looking bear in the bow tie with the crooked ears is a 1920s German teddy.

Antique Postcard: Lemon Lady

I'm nearly as fond of old postcards as I am of old toys. This is one of my favorites, because of its anthropomorphic subject (see earlier entries on Mr. Potato Head, one of my most loved playthings).

This card features a fantastic character on the front: a lemon lady with a gentle, bemused smile, wearing a lovely green ensemble. The caption reads: "I'M LOOKING FOR A LEMON SQUEEZER."

Many postcard collectors seem to prefer their cards unused, but I enjoy seeing the messages penned on the back by the original senders.
As best I can make out, this one was sent to a "Miss Leafa Fuller, State Sanatorium, Howell, Michigan," on November 18, 1912.
It reads: "I received your card all O.K. Was glad to hear from you. How are you any way. I am O.K. Harley helped thresh here the 12 of Nov. I joined the M.E. Church Sunday. I am not going to school any more. I will be 16 the 19 of this month. So I won't go any more. Georgia Bowen and Miss Slater sang in the choir Sunday. Lavern + Beulah went over with me Sun. Hoping to hear from you soon. I remain your friend Lucilla," and a circled p.s. relates that "Clara Cooper has got a boy baby."

Fascinating stuff! First of all, what fabulous names: Lucilla, Harley, Lavern, Beulah, Leafa, Clara. You just don't see names like those anymore. Reading this, I wonder: why was Leafa in the sanatorium? Did she get better? Did Lucilla grow up and find true love? How did Clara's baby boy turn out? What was the M.E. Church? Did Harley like threshing on the farm, or did he really want to run away to the city and become an accountant? It's like a little soap opera on the back of this card, and we've come to it halfway through the season, unfamiliar with the plot lines...

Restored Antique Coin Op Horse Kiddie Ride

We finished restoring my antique coin op horsie ride this weekend (for the details, see a few posts down, or click on the "kiddie ride" or "mechanical horse" labels below). Here's video of him in action.

Antique American Black Teddy Bear

While not one of the oldest bears in my collection, this teddy is one of the rarest. American made between 1910 - 1920, this simple "stick" type 14 inch bear is special because of his black mohair. For whatever reason, black bears were not popular and were made in very small numbers. I was lucky to find this one, and consider him one of my treasures.