Antique Tin Toy Kitchens

Tin toy kitchens, also known as doll kitchens, were made in Germany and America through the 1800s in a wide range of styles and price points. All were based on an open, three sided room box model. Large deluxe versions often featured working water tanks, functional sink taps, and a vast array of accessories, while tiny, simply made varieties offered only the merest suggestion of an oven, and relied heavily on children's imagination to make up for their lack of amenities.

I received these two tin kitchens for Christmas this past year. The first was made in Germany in the 1870s, and although small, measuring a mere 6 inches wide by 4 inches tall, features some fine details. There is a functioning tank on the right side which delivers water through a spout on the inner wall. The stove has a hood, a door that opens, and a rarely seen heat regulator (the tiny tab above the door: it slides to reveal an opening which would allow heat to escape from the oven.)

The kitchen still retains its unusually bright color scheme of yellow walls, salmon floor, and turquoise shelves.

This second kitchen is the tiniest and crudest I've ever seen, and yet it has a primitive charm. Measuring just 4 inches wide, it's almost pocket sized, and its stove is just a piece of folded tin, creating the merest suggestion of an oven. It retains traces of its original green paint on the side walls, and was clearly much loved and played with by its original owner. It dates from the late 1800s.

To learn more about the history of these playsets and to see a larger, more deluxe model, click here.

Tin Toy Grocery Stores by Wolverine: the Corner Grocer and the General Grocery

This tin grocery store playset was one of a variety of such miniature shops made by the Wolverine Supply and Mfg. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1903, Wolverine began as a tool and die manufacturer before transitioning to toy making. From the 1930s - 1970s, the company made a huge range of toy stoves, refrigerators, kitchen cupboards, tea sets, and many more domestic playthings, all crafted from lithographed metal.

This store, known as the Corner Grocer, was made by Wolverine in the 1930s - 40s. The two wings of shelves fold in for storage. When extended, the entire shop measures 31 inches wide by 14 inches tall.

The highly detailed main panel features an historic grocery store interior. Visible in the lower left are glass fronted cracker or biscuit bins, and a variety of carefully arranged dry goods line the shelves.

The store's actual shelves came filled with miniature packages, and the original child owner added a few additional pieces, including some salesman samples she probably got while shopping for real groceries with her mother.

The free standing counters and accessory pieces that came with these stores are usually missing today, since they couldn't be stored inside the closed shop as the groceries themselves were. We were very lucky to find this one intact, along with its original shop phone. The scale and cash register were added, but fit the playset perfectly.

The front of the counter is illustrated to look like a deli case, complete with cold cuts and cheeses.

The miniature tin cash register actually works: as the levers are moved, numbers ring up on the other side, and the drawer springs open to take in tiny coins. 

 

The Corner Grocer was one of this year's best Christmas gifts. A few years ago, I received another Wolverine tin shop, the General Grocery, which also dates from the 1930s - 40s. This one is smaller, measuring 20 inches wide by 12 inches tall. It is structured differently from the Corner Grocer, with its shelves in the center panel. The side wings still fold in for storage, but they feature beautifully lithographed images of children shopping. Although this set is missing its counter, it still has its original shop phone, along with a feature unique to this particular grocery, a fold out awning. 

 

These shelves are better stocked than my own cupboards....I'd better stop blogging and head off to the real grocery store!

1890s German Dollhouse Room Box

My favorite Christmas present this year was a German folding dollhouse room box, circa the late 1880s - 1890s. It was clearly a favorite of its original owner as well, as she carefully treasured the fragile toy over many years.

At first glance, you would never even realize this is a dollhouse. It starts out as a lithographed cardboard box, just 8 by 5 by 2 inches, about the size of  a small candy box. The top features a beautiful lithograph of Victorian ladies in their parlor (and that is a hint of what's inside!)

When you lift the lid, the box falls open as the sides drop away, revealing within a gorgeously illustrated Victorian room.

What had appeared to be just a pattern on the outside of the box reveals itself to be brickwork, and the two side panels that fold out are illustrated with windows.

The original owner pencilled her name alongside this window. It appears to read "Hortie B." Perhaps short for Hortense? "Made in Germany" is visible below.

Inside, the lithographed walls are rich with detail and color.

The little room box also contained what appears to be its original furniture, in a small scale and narrow depth made necessary by the shallowness of the closed box. There is an upholstered sofa and two chairs, along with a table that features its own lithographed scene on top.

The outside of the box still retains its original store label and price (25 cents, no small amount back in the late 1800s!) It was sold by Henry Moll in St. Peter, Minnesota, whose shop, interestingly, specialized not in toys, but in books, stationery, wall paper, and window dressings. You can imagine a Victorian mother carefully examining wall paper samples at Mr. Moll's shop while her daughter was kept occupied with this little dollhouse.

I don't know which tiny dolls Hortie kept in her room box as they were sadly missing, but I found a few in my collection that seemed perfectly at home.

German Dollhouse General Store

This antique dollhouse general store came from the collection of a woman who designed the toy department window displays for John Wanamaker in Philadelphia in the 1920s and 30s. This little shop was used in the famous department store's window displays, and later was a cherished plaything of the woman's children. It dates circa the 1920s - early 30s, was made in Germany, probably by the Gottschalk company, and still retains its original floor and wallpapers.

It is much smaller than most German dollhouse shops, measuring just 7 inches tall by 13 wide. But it's still big enough to be packed full of stuff, including boxes, bottles, and canned goods; pottery; dry goods containers; a tin scale; even a tiny pair of wooden shoes.

The "Maggi" name features prominently throughout the store, on canned goods, wall posters, and the front of the counter. Perhaps the whole store was a promotional giveaway sort of item for this company?

The six tiny drawers originally would have held loose dry goods like flour, rice, and salt, for little shopkeepers to practice measuring and dispensing. The silver ribbon shaped metal labels are a trademark of shops made by the Gottschalk company, and are seen on their items over many decades.

The little shop is just the right size for antique miniature German bears. A 1910 Steiff is behind the counter, about to weigh out some treats for his tiny customer.

Miniature French Dollhouse Shops: the Epicerie

If you've read my blog for awhile, you'll know that I have a thing for antique miniature dollhouse shops, particularly the little toy grocery stores that were made in Germany for many years. Here's something a little different: three miniature dollhouse stores that were made in France, circa the 1900s - early 1930s. This type of store was called an epicerie, the French term for a grocery store or delicatessen, and the style was very different from the German, being more of a flat counter than a three dimensional room box.

Along with the small German shop in the foreground, they all came from the collection of a woman whose mother had been the display designer for the toy department windows at the legendary John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia in the 1920s and 30s. These all featured in store window displays over the years, and later became playthings of the designer's family. They were lovingly cared for, and amazingly still retain most of their original items.

Let's go shopping! We'll start with my favorite, the art nouveau styled shop, which measures 19 inches tall and dates circa the early 1900s. It features lovely stenciled designs, a faux wood grained paper covered base, and loads of original accessories including plaster breads and cheeses, glass bottles, tin utensils, and wooden packages of fondant, biscuits, and other delicacies.

Tiny tin pans and scoops hang from a shelf.

Look at the detail on the original shelf paper trim, and the label on the little can!

These delicate glass bottles, incredibly, survived nearly 100 years of display and play.

The shop came complete with a little dustpan and brush for cleaning up the day's crumbs.

This beautiful store was the perfect destination for a French dolly who wanted some cheese and crackers, and maybe a little wine to go with them.

For a dolly that wanted to do some baking, this next shop might have been a better choice, as it features loads of tiny drawers that originally would have been filled with loose dry goods like sugar and flour for a child to scoop and  measure out. This one dates circa the 1920s.

This little chocolate box has an illustration of French comic character Tintin on the side. 

This store came with beautiful glazed porcelain dishes holding plaster foods. They display nicely on the long counter that runs the width of the shop.

The last epicerie is very unusual, circa the early 1930s, and I thought it was actually homemade due to the handlettering on the drawers and the poorer quality of the painting. I've since seen another just like it but without the lithographed papers on the interior. My guess is it was made at home from a kit or plans in a magazine, which was a bit of a trend for dollhouses of this time period. The lithographed papers are what make this one special. They feature beautiful illustrations of much earlier times, showing Victorian era shoppers at their own grocery stores.

This shop appears to be the one the children of the window designer played with the most, as it came with added products from the 1940s and 50s.

The likely more original packages include a little can of tinned crab meat, triangular cheese boxes, and a plum pudding.

That's the end of our epicerie tour. I'll post the little German shop separately. Now I'm off to do my real life grocery shopping, which isn't nearly as fun as this was!