Antique German Dollhouse Food

I've been keeping an eye out for more goodies to stock my German toy grocery store (see earlier post), and I just spotted these. From the early 1900s - 1920s, these German-made plaster pieces are charmingly primitive. I find them much more appealing somehow than today's ultra-realistic dollhouse food. These remind me of the dollhouse meal the Two Bad Mice smashed in frustration in Beatrix Potter's classic storybook...


Another find for the shop was this 1930s German flour sack. The shelves are slowly filling up!

Book Review

Dollhouse and Miniature Dolls, 1840 - 1990, by Marcie & Bob Tubbs with Dian Zillner. Published by Schiffer Publishing, May 28, 2009. 256 pages.

Here's a book long-awaited by dollhouse collectors: an entire volume devoted to dollhouse and miniature dolls. While there have been brief chapters on these dolls in books about dolls or dollhouses, this is the first work I'm aware of that is entirely about them. And quite a comprehensive work it is, covering miniature dolls made of every imaginable material: bisque, wood, china, paper, plastic, rubber, composition, celluloid, vinyl, and more. Dolls dating from the Victorian period up to modern days are featured, and countries of origin include Germany, Britain, Japan, America, and others. Really a delight to peruse, this book will entice readers into its enchanting small worlds.

1930s German Toy Grocery Shop

Another addition to my growing collection of toy grocery stores, this is my first German shop. Dating from the 1930s, with a great deco design, it measures about 15 inches wide by 13 inches tall. The little wooden drawers still have their original handles and labels for salt, pepper, rice, pickles, cookies, and tea. It came with some lovely accessories: miniature boxes of Knorr products (soup mixes?), tiny tins (for cookies?), a cheese on a glass dish, and a fantastic and very old compote of fruit. A 1920s Schuco bear watches over the cheese and sausage counter.

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Thoughts on Toy Collecting

I made the mistake last week of "catching up on the news." This always makes me sad, and anxious, and I vow never to watch the news again. But that is really an impossible vow to keep. My antidote to too much toxic news was to retreat into some old books about toys and read, read, read, which I did all weekend. In a 1976 book on dollhouse miniatures, I came across this passage, with which I could readily identify. Although the author is speaking specifically about collecting miniatures, I think her words could apply to any old toy collection:

"Beyond the universal and age-old affection for things small, the fascination with miniatures seems to have a special significance for us today. The modern world is bewildering in its complexity and fraught with dangers, which the news media confront us with daily. At times, too, our society seems grossly insensitive to its heritage, paving over the past with scarcely a glance backward. It's the kind of world -- unsentimental and beyond our power to influence -- that we take pleasure in escaping from occasionally. Miniatures provide the perfect retreat. They take the rough edges off of reality. They allow us to preserve the past by recreating it. And, they give us control over a tiny world of our own making, where everything is just the way we want it, with ugliness and inconvenience walled out. In our miniature world, roofs never leak, rugs never fall victim to cigarette burns, beds never need making, food never spoils. As one collector put it: 'The only perfect thing in my life is my dollhouse. It's there. It's controllable. It's security.' "

Speak it, sister!

Antique Lithographed Dollhouse

This was my first antique dollhouse. Dating from right around 1900, it was made by an unknown American company emulating the famed Bliss dollhouses. This firm's products are similarly made of lithographed paper over wood, and open from the front on a hinged door. The oversized wallpaper is original to the house. These are commonly called "Gutter Houses" because of the molding along the roof line that resembles a gutter. This is a particularly small example, measuring about 13 inches high by 9 3/4 wide and only 4 3/4 deep. It's been a bit of a challenge finding furnishings small enough for this house: so far we have a teeny tiny stove, a rocking chair, and a tin trunk, along with an antique German all-bisque dolly. Looks like she's baking today...

1860s China Dolls

Just got this family of little china dolls, all circa the 1860s. The 8 1/2 inch doll on top has such a sweet face, I thought. She just looks like she wants to bake you some cookies and hear all about your day. The two tiny dolls on the bottom are dollhouse sized, 6 and 4 inches, respectively. Although worn, they've got a lot of character, I felt. I wonder what they've seen in their 150 years...

1895 Cooke's Fairy Furniture

Just found this wonderful piece of miniature furniture made by Cooke's Indestructable Toys way back in the 1890s. It's held up quite well for such a fragile item, so the company was apparently well named! Cooke's called this dollhouse accessory line their "Fairy Furniture," as can be seen in the accompanying original ad. Printed on heavy cardboard, the ad actually forms the base of the sofa, and makes this set readily identifiable.

1800s Tin Kitchen

This tin kitchen playset dates from the mid to late 1800s. It was made in America, and represents a much simpler version of the fabulous German Nuremberg kitchens of the time. The kitchen measures about 12 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and most of the accessories are original to the set. One of its most interesting features is the water pump on the right side. It could actually be filled with water and then pumped into the sink fixed to the wall. These kitchens were not meant to be true to scale; rather, the idea was for little girls to learn cooking by playing with them, and for that they needed larger utensils. These tin kitchens were used for "cold cooking" (pretend), but there were also woodburning and alcohol stoves made for "hot cooking" (real). I'll list some of these 19th century versions of the Easy Bake Oven soon!

Gardening Gnome

It's spring, which means it's time for the gardening gnome to get busy. This wooden cutout gnome was used in holiday window displays at the downtown Detroit Hudson's store in the 1930s. He's about a yard tall, and likes to hang out next to the mushroom dollhouse.