1925 Tootsie Toy Dollhouse

It adds a lot to an antique toy to purchase it directly from the original owner. The trail of provenance is then intact, which adds monetary value, but that isn't really what I mean. It's more of a sentimental quality that can't be quantified...to know that you're only the second person to ever own the toy; to have (hopefully) given the owner, usually elderly, comfort in knowing that their beloved toy will be cared for...these are wonderful things.

I've only ever managed it a few times in my toy collecting career, but one of the most exciting happened last month. A man put his mother's 1925 Tootsie Toy dollhouse up for sale, complete with all the furnishings and accessories she filled it with as a child. The online pictures weren't the clearest, but were enough to reveal there was a lot of vintage Tootsie Toy (TT) furniture inside.

When it arrived, however, it took my breath away. In addition to complete sets of the earliest TT furniture, there were French penny toy pieces, a delicate German tin fireplace, tiny TT streetcars and automobiles, and even a miniature German bisque doll. And everything was in incredible condition.

Two things were clear upon examining the house and its contents: the young girl who owned it filled it with items she got back in the 1920s, probably at a local candy/toy shop; and the grown woman cared for it all lovingly for the next 85 years.

And here it is:

 The front of the 21 inch wide cardboard house opens wide, revealing four front rooms (dining room, living room, bedroom, and nursery), with two back rooms visible beyond the arched doorways.

The back of the house opens as well, allowing access to two small back rooms (kitchen and bathroom):

Let's start our tour in the dining room, furnished with Tootsie Toy's classic 1/2 inch scale painted metal furniture, including a round table, buffet, chairs, and sideboard. (For a sense of scale, the chairs are just 2 inches tall.) This room, like the rest of the house, features printed decor on the walls and floors, including rugs, panelling, tile work, curtains, and paintings:

The adjoining living room stretches the full depth of the house, and is filled with TT pieces, including a sofa, matching chairs, floor lamp, drop leaf desk, a French penny toy telephone (out of scale, but original to the house, so it stays), and a beautiful German tin fireplace, complete with its red foil "fire". Just out of sight in the front left corner is a TT Victrola, while visible on the right is a staircase to the second floor. I added the little china doggie on the sofa, because he just seemed to belong there:

The delicate, German tin fireplace was one of the greatest finds in the house. Here, the doggie curls up in front of the roaring (foil) flames:

Upstairs, the bedroom also stretches the full depth of the house. It contains a TT bedroom set of matching twin beds, dresser, vanity, and chairs, plus a French penny toy sewing machine and a tiny German bisque doll with sleeping "googly" type eyes and a mohair wig:

The little 2 3/4 inch doll was original to the house, and is of a type often referred to as a "candy store doll." These were inexpensive small dolls that were sold at candy shops from the late 1800s - 1930s, where they were displayed alongside the sweets. Little girls would have been able to purchase them with their pocket money. This one was clearly dear to her original owner, and has been lovingly cared for. Even though she's quite homely and a bit out of scale with her surroundings, I wouldn't dream of removing her.

Upstairs, the nursery held a wonderful surprise: beautiful, French-made penny toy furniture, including two tiny beds, a vanity, and a round table with matching chair and bench. These ended up being the only things I removed from the house (after much deliberation), because they perfectly suited another antique dollhouse I had that needed furniture (see it here):

Also in the nursery, and also likely purchased by the original owner as a young girl at her local candy shop, were a tiny Tootsie Toy auto and streetcar (just 1 1/2 inches long), along with a fragile celluloid doll and animal, and more French penny toy pieces: a toy stove and a baby carriage. The survival of these tiny, fragile toys attests to their owner's decades of tender care. 

Turning to the back of the house, the kitchen was a delight, housing not only the appropriate TT furnishings of table, chairs, stove, icebox, sink, and Hoosier cabinet, but also a tiny advertising charm shaped like a ham, a giveaway from Swift's Premium Ham Company.  It's amazing to think of the little girl who first owned this house picking up this charm somewhere, maybe on a trip to the butcher's or grocer's with her mother, and realizing it was just the right size (1 1/4 inches)  for her dollhouse kitchen. And there it has remained all these years...

The final back room is the bath, complete with some of the smallest and rarest TT  pieces: a towel rod and medicine cabinet:

Also visible from the back of the house is the closet under the staircase, which opens:

I've tried to resist adding anything to the house, so as not to spoil its original, "as-found" quality (as mentioned earlier, I just had to put the little doggie in, though, and I did "borrow" the French furniture for a different house). But I temporarily posed some of my miniature dolls and bears inside for a few quick pics:

The way the lighting turned out in this one, my 3 1/2 inch dollhouse lady looks like she's waiting for a surprise party to begin:

A dapper dollhouse man warms his hands at the fire after a night out on the town:

And the Tootsie Toy tea cart is just the right size for a tiny Schuco bear:

Antique German Dollhouse Dishes and Tables

At a toy show last weekend, I found a wonderful, very tiny set of antique porcelain German dollhouse dishes tucked away in an old candy box, buried in a pile of junque under a dealer's table. Price: just $10.00!

(I cannot even count the number of times I've found fantastic things hidden in delapidated, unrelated boxes...it's always worth taking a look!)

The set, circa the early 1900s, includes a tureen, vegetable dish, gravy boat, cream pitcher, plates, and a serving tray. For a sense of scale, the itty bitty tureen is just 1 1/2 inches long.

At a different dealer's table a few minutes later, I found these German dollhouse tables, circa the 1920s, just 5 inches long and priced at only $5.00 each. They turned out to be the perfect size for the dishes, and my favorite small doll:

Antique Bliss Dollhouse With French Penny Toy Furniture

I've posted this early 1900s Bliss dollhouse before, but I just redecorated it with some antique French penny toy furniture and a German tin fireplace. It came out really well, so I thought it was worth a re-post. (The furniture and fireplace were part of a fantastic recent find: they came with a Tootsie Toy dollhouse, loaded with accessories, purchased from the original owner's family. More on that in an upcoming post...)

 The lithographed house is 11 1/2 inches tall, 

with a typical two-room interior.

It still has all of its original wall and floor papers.

The French-made metal furniture, dating from the 1920s, is in a small, mostly 1/2 inch scale, and includes a table, chair, bench, dressing table with gilt mirror, sewing machine, and two twin beds. The German tin fireplace, from the late 1900s-early '20s, still has its red foil "fire." A Cracker Jack prize clock rests on the mantle.

The beautiful baby carriage, another of the French penny toy pieces,  holds a Frozen Charlotte doll.

1930s Playskool Pullman

About 25 years ago, when I first started collecting teddy bears, I saw an interesting antique toy mentioned in one of my reference books. In a chapter of hints for displaying miniature bears, the author had posed several tiny teddies in an old tin playset called the Playskool Pullman.

I had never heard of this toy, and I was immediately captivated. The tin Pullman car looked like a miniature suitcase from the outside, and measured 11 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches. A leather carrying handle allowed the owner to easily tote the Pullman along, perhaps on a real train trip. When opened, a miniature train car interior was revealed, complete with a porter's closet, fold-up berth with bedding, and a seating area of benches with a fold-down table. I was absolutely smitten: it was an amazing toy.

It also turned out to be an extremely rare toy. Designed by a preschool teacher in the late 1920s and made around 1930, the Playskool Pullman was reportedly only manufactured for a very brief time, perhaps only a year, before the Great Depression put a stop to the toy's production. For years and years, the Pullman eluded me. With the arrival of internet auctions, I finally saw a few, but the prices were high and the competition was fierce, due to the toy's rarity and crossover appeal to lots of different toy collectors: dollhouse lovers, toy train aficianados, tin toy fantatics, Playskool collectors. But finally, last year, I found one. The good news: it was cheap. The bad news: it looked like it had been sitting in a barn and slowly decomposing for the past 80 years. I bought it anyway, on the assumption that my mom could fix it. She did, and here it is:

Big Bear is running to catch the train, but it looks like he's too late.

Inside, the private compartment is home to 

three little Steiff bears.

The porter's closet on the left was originally intended to hold the mattresses and bedding, but most Pullman owners convert it into a bathroom, as I did with these antique German dollhouse pieces.

The top berth pulls down, revealing a cozy bed complete with 

sheets, blankets, and pillows. 

The littlest bear is tucked in for the night, 

falling asleep to the sound of the train clacking down the tracks.

For comparison, here's what the Pullman looked like when we got it:

What Was In Tracy's Stocking?

Stocking stuffers are one of my very favorite Christmas traditions. The sight of a Christmas stocking bulging with mysterious small objects just makes my heart go pitter-patter. As miniature collectors know, very great things indeed can come in small packages, and this year Santa outdid himself.

My stocking held a couple of vintage 1940s MinToy dollhouse miniatures in their original packaging (a set of kitchen knives and a box of silverware); old dollhouse cakes; a 1920s-'30s Austrian-made celluloid dolly in a peanut; part of an antique miniature German teaset; a 1920s-'30s Old Maid card game; and a huge assortment of 1920s and '30s joke boxes. If you were reading the blog back on last April Fool's Day, you'll know that I have a passion for vintage pranks and jokes. I'm going to wait until this April to post the joke boxes properly, but here's everything else:

MinToy was a Chicago based manufacturer of dollhouse miniatures in the 1940s-'50s. Their motto was "The Big House of Little Things," and they made very nice things indeed. This carded set of kitchen utensils measures  4 1/2 inches, while the itty bitty box of silverware is just 2 1/8  inches.

Little dollies in peanut shaped molded cardboard containers were a mini-fad in the 1920s and '30s. This Austrian-made version features a celluloid doll with her original glass baby bottle. The peanut is 4 inches long.

This partial German dolly's tea set just delighted me. I love the colorful stripes, reminiscent of a circus tent. Circa the early 1900s-'20s, the teacups are 1 inch in diameter.

This Old Maid card game dates from the 1920s-'30s. It features fantastic caricature art: click on the photo to see the cards in more detail.

Lastly, a lot of wonderful old dollhouse cakes, dating between 1920-1960. Why all these dollhouse cakes? Because my biggest gift this year was an 1890s German dollhouse pastry shop or confectioner's. It needs a complete restoration, and then these cakes will fill its empty shelves...pictures to follow once it's all done!

Bliss Dollhouse

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was this Bliss dollhouse from the early 1900s. The American made lithographed house is 11 1/2 inches tall, with the front opening to reveal two rooms inside, each with their original floor and wall papers. The two pillars, balcony, and "gutter" were originally lithographed too, but these papers have not survived. There's a lot of architectural interest to this little house, with its terracotta tiled roof, half-timbered construction, and oval leaded glass windows.

A little china head doll lives cozily inside:

Upstairs, two tiny Frozen Charlottes nap in their little bed. I love the floor paper in this room:

Downstairs, a tea has been laid on the little table:

Vintage American Dollhouse Grocery Shop

For Christmas this year, I received a couple of old dollhouse shops, the circa 1900 German example described earlier, and this, a 1950s American model of the "modern" grocery store. Measuring a full two feet wide, it's made of wood and fibreboard, and came filled with many of its original products along with its cash register, check out counter, meat counter, and striped awning.

This overhead view gives an idea of the store's layout:

Through the window, the checkout and dairy cooler are visible:

The meat counter features hanging hams, made of flat fiberboard with printed detail:

Most of the products are made of wood, wrapped with paper labels. I'm especially intrigued by the "Snappy Brand Cheese" in a can: whatever was this like?!

Antique German Dollhouse General Store

One of my most spectacular Christmas gifts this year was this antique German dollhouse shop, a general store circa 1900, measuring 18 inches wide. It has its original counter, tin cash register, drawers with tin labels (written in English for the American and British markets), floor paper, wallpaper border, and many old products and accessories.

 The shop came with an assortment of antique German-made cakes and pies, including a very appropriate Christmas pudding trimmed with holly:

It was also loaded with lots of old miniature packages; a sampling is shown below. Who wouldn't like a box of Nirvana? I didn't know we could buy such a metaphysical concept, and so neatly packaged too. (Oh, one of my German friends has just informed me this was likely a coffee brand...)

The tin cash register is a wonderful piece. Looks like the shopkeeper is getting ready to ring up a basket of eggs:

Another great old piece is this tiny bird cage, made of pressed and painted tin, with an itty-bitty bird inside:

The shop also came with a wonderful old mop, useful for cleaning up spills from the dry goods drawers...

...and a tin scoop and pan:

My old Clark & Coats Company paper doll seems to fit perfectly behind the counter of this warm and cozy shop: