Dollhouse Decorating

I meant to do some serious spring-cleaning over the past weekend. But I didn't. Instead, I spent several hours rearranging my dollhouses, a very addictive and time-consuming undertaking. Below are some photos of the finished results on my 13 inch 1900s lithographed paper house. (Note: the oversized interior wall and floor papers are original to the house.)

First, I fit out the house in scale, with a nursery upstairs and a kitchen down, using two antique German dollhouse dolls:

Then I redid the house, paying no mind to a sense of realistic scale. I went instead with a folk-arty look, similar to what a child playing with their own dollhouse would achieve, mixing pieces with no heed given to what belongs together. My favorite dollhouse china doll is technically too big for this house, but her dress goes well with the wallpaper and carpets, and I love the way she looks here, like a giantess in her kitchen. Meanwhile, her children, a collection of Frozen Charlottes and china head dollhouse dolls (and one just-a-head), play upstairs, and the dollhouse serves as a sort of display cabinet for them:

Ooops: I just noticed they've knocked the painting off the nursery wall in this second photo. Darn kids...

Vintage Dolly Bakeware

One of my favorite things to do with old toys is to arrange little scenes. Toy cupboards are particularly suited to this, as with the old doll's kitchen cupboard, below. It's a lot of fun scouring antique shows and shops, looking for just the right accessories to bring such a scene to life.
At a show this past weekend, I found this assortment of 1940s doll-sized bakeware, including a wooden rolling pin and metal biscuit and gingerbread cutters. My 20 inch German dolly models below. For scale, the cookie cutters are 2 inches long.

Antique Doll Dishes

Spotted in a tray full of miniatures at an antique show this past weekend were all these wonderful doll dishes and baking accessories. Made of china, they date mostly to the late 1800s, with the tiniest cup and saucer just after the turn of the century. The muffin pan (?) is 3 inches wide, while the smallest cup is just under 1 inch tall.

For a sense of scale, my 14 inch china doll agreed to pose, although she doesn't look particularly pleased about it:

(Another) Victorian Doll Trunk Full of Toys

Last December, I posted about a Victorian doll trunk full of antique toys that I purchased for Christmas. Well, incredibly, another one has come my way, and the neat thing is, its the very same pattern, just a smaller size, measuring 12 inches wide by 6  1/2 tall. The trunk and the toys within, left by the original owner, date from the 1890s - early 1900s, just as with the previous one.

The contents included a 14 inch china head doll wearing her old, handmade dress; a 5 inch dollhouse doll with a mohair wig, in her original clothing; a tiny jointed all bisque doll, only 2 inches tall; a tin toy horse, 3 3/4 inches long; two 5  1/4 inch J. & P. Coats Company advertising paper dolls, complete with extra outfits and hats; a child-made patchwork doll quilt; and a handcrafted needle case made from birch bark, probably an arts and crafts project done at a Victorian children's summer camp.

Inside the trunk.

The big china doll, wearing her simply smashing hat.

She is ready for her tea.

All the other goodies. The child-made

doll quilt and needle case are on the far right.

Here are some close ups of the paper dolls, which are incredibly beautiful. They were actually advertising premiums for the J.& P. Coats Company, later known as Coats & Clark, which made cotton thread. Several series of dolls were printed, and girls were encouraged to "collect them all!" The company's advertising information was printed on the back of each piece. Click on the picture to enlarge, and you'll see that one doll features kittens, while the other has several different toys, including a rather frightening jack in the box, a ball, and dollies of her own.

Here are a few close ups of the small dolls: the dollhouse doll, who is wearing her original, sewn-on dress with a cotton lace overlay and a big, bustly ribbon, and the itty bitty baby doll.

A snazzy polka dotted underskirt!

The itty bitty 2 inch all bisque baby.

Lastly, here's the tin horse, who just fascinates me. I'm not sure if he was originally flat like this, or if he was left outside and run over by something, perhaps one of those new-fangled "horseless carriages"...either way, he was obviously special to his young owner, who carefully tucked him away in the trunk when his playing days were over.

As always with these trunk lot finds, its remarkable to me that everything stayed together for so long and in such fine shape (horsie excepted), and it's very touching to handle the items and wonder about the child, or children, who played with them so long ago...

Antique Bisque & Compostion Character Baby Doll by Hertel Schwab

Antique teddy bears are my real passion, but every once in awhile I find a doll that appeals to me. That was putting it mildly with this guy, spotted at an antique show yesterday. A bisque headed character baby on a composition body,  he was made in Germany by Hertel Schwab around 1910-1912.  He has blue glass sleep eyes, his original soft mohair wig, and an antique doll's christening gown and cap. He measures about 8 1/2 inches tall in his sitting position, and I thought the tiny Schuco bear was the perfect companion for him.

This close up reveals the beauty of his face sculpt and painting. He even has a little dimple in his chin...

Antique Toy Kitchen Cupboard

I love miniature toy cupboards. They can be used to set up delightful vignettes for dolls or teddy bears, but they're also just lots of fun to stock. Searching for just the right tiny utensils, or doll-sized pots and pans, or salesman's samples of food items, and then arranging and rearranging the contents can consume me for hours. It only took me a few minutes, however, to load up this circa 1900s-1920s handmade kitchen cupboard, found at an antique show over the weekend. It measures 18 inches tall, and has all of its original hardware. Its primitive charm and obvious wear just endeared it to me, and I find myself wondering how it was filled by the little girl who owned it almost 100 years ago.

For a sense of scale, here's the toy cupboard sitting on top of my real-life Hoosier cabinet:

Vintage Barbie Case and Clothes

Found at a local antique show over the weekend was this 1962 Barbie doll case packed full of original clothes, accessories, and doll furniture. I love finding these cases: it's like a little treasure hunt, digging through the layers and (hopefully) discovering rare and valuable items buried deep within.

This one was a jackpot: beneath a surface strata of mommy-made, handknit clothes and individual Barbie pieces were three complete, very early Barbie outfits, each of which typically sells for more than the whole case cost me. (Woo-hoo! Happy Dance time!) The outfits (Sorority Meeting, Friday Nite Date, and Red Flare) were complete with their various purses, jewelry, shoes, gloves, hats, and even the serving tray and sodas with straws that comprise the famous accessories to Date.

The booklets seen in the lower right of the case feature ads for various Barbie outfits, including the three mentioned above (click on pics to enlarge):

One of the most amazing finds was at the very bottom of the case, packed in its own clear vinyl envelope: a real fur wrap (feels like bunny) in miniature, Barbie size! Clearly, this Barbie was not a member of PETA. Below, my Barbie, who has euphorically plunged into the case full of goodies, models her new wrap:

A small compartment in the case was loaded with more shoes, purses, belts, picture frames with Ken's image inside, a tiny turntable and Barbie records, tiny Barbie-sized "Fashion" and "Home" magazines, and, treasure of treasures, one of the hardest to find vintage accessories: the teeny-tiny medicine spoon that came with the Nursing outfit! The tiny pieces, including Barbie's pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings, were carefully tucked into a large purse. Whoever the little girl was who owned this case originally, I thank her heartily now for the care she took to keep her toys together!

Trade-In Barbie with Original Box

Here's something wonderful I just got (technically, though, she's a Christmas present, because she's been on layaway since then...)

By the mid 1960s, the Barbie doll, which had formerly been the height of couture, was now looking matronly and dated in her tailored "Jackie O" ensembles and pillbox hats. The Mod era had begun, and Barbie evolved along with it. In 1967, Mattel Toys offered a remarkable promotion: by sending in $1.50 and your old Barbie, you could get the new version, complete with "bendable legs", a  patented "twist n' turn waist", and "real eyelashes". Little girls unsentimentally dispatched their original Barbies in droves, and what they received is pictured below: the "NEW Barbie", with her original box. Mine is in minty, unplayed with condition: it appears her box took the worst of the wear over the past 40 years.

 

The new more poseable Barbie offers increased 
photo opportunities 

for the robots:

1960s Ideal Pebbles Doll

This 8 inch Baby Pebbles Doll, made by Ideal in the 1960s during the initial run of the Flintstones cartoon, was discovered in a booth full of junque at a toy show last weekend. Ideal made both Pebbles and Bamm Bamm dolls, in a huge range of sizes. This was the smallest version, and she is soooo cute!

 

 

Blonde China Head "Pet Name" Doll

For a break from all the valentine posts, here's a much-loved toy: a 14 inch china head doll with the rarer blonde hairdo. She's from a series of dolls made in Germany by Hertwig from the 1890s - early 1900s with their names factory-painted on their shoulderplates. This one is "Agnes," and, as can be seen from her raggedy body, she was much-loved by her young owner. Miraculously, her head has remained intact and lovely after all these years...

 

 

Homemade Cigar Box Doll Furniture

I was thinking that February, besides being the obvious month to showcase vintage valentines, is also a good time to highlight toys made with love, or toys that are now charmingly bedraggled by too much love from their young owners. So, if you're tired of the valentines, here's a change, although I guess it still is rather girly and schmaltzy. 

Anyway, here we have a fantastic set of lovingly homemade doll furniture. The bed, cradle, table, and small china head doll have been together since the set was assembled in 1914. I've added the larger china doll, because the little dolly clearly needed a mommy, and also the table accessories. For scale, the bed is 11 and a half inches long, and the littlest doll is just 6 and a half inches tall.

The furniture was made from cigar boxes, which I find just fascinating. Can you imagine a father today saying, "hey Susie, want me to make you some Barbie furniture from my Marlboro cartons?" Seriously though, I love finding repurposed items like this. It's as if it's been recycled twice: first by the parent who turned a discarded box into a beloved toy, and next by me, who bought it and kept it out of a landfill. (Go green!) Anyway, in the next photo you can see the cigar box markings clearly stamped into the underside of the little table.

The furniture also features handpainted faux wood grain, and the slats on the bed are actually numbered to show which order they go in (since, being handmade, the measurements are not quite standard).

And the neatest thing, which I've found on almost all the homemade doll furniture I've seen, is that the name of the little girl the set was made for is pencilled on the underside of the cradle, along with the date ("Marela, 1914"). I'm not sure why this was done so extensively, but toy collectors are certainly grateful for it now!

Valentine Paper Doll

This amazing valentine was sent by an "Aunt Etta" to her niece 

back in the 1930s. 

When opened, it reveals an itty bitty paper doll   

with even ittier bittier outfits tucked in a tiny envelope. 

Thanks Aunt Etta, whoever you were!

 

Housekeeping Dolly Valentine

This large mechanical 1930s valentine has some damage, but the scene was so charming, I decided to overlook it. What a great image of a little girl and her dolly, doing the laundry...and I love the anxious expression on the dolly's face: she looks like she just woke up after a bender, thinking, 
"Holy crap! Where are my clothes?"

Antique "Coats & Clark Company" Paper Dolls

I'm always amazed when I find a fragile paper toy that has survived through long years of play, and this just may be the most amazing such toy I have. Made from the late 1800s through the early 1900s as an advertising premium by the J P Coats Company (now the Coats & Clark Company), this 6 inch  paper doll is really 12 toys in one.There's a different doll printed on each side of the figure, with 3 different heads for each doll concealed on a rotating wheel within its body. Beautifully lithographed, it's a charming toy as well as a very clever one.

Here is the first doll with her three different heads:

The picture below shows the changeable head mechanism.

Here is the doll on the flip side:

 

 

Barbie's Dream House

I got my first vintage Barbie doll this past year, in honor of her 50th birthday. I thought it would be enough to just have one doll, or a few, but I found it hard to resist adding a house. After all, I reasoned, they can't be very comfortable piled on top of each other in their carrying cases. So, after much deliberation, we took out a mortgage on a 1962 Barbie's Dream House, the first of many domiciles made for the iconic fashion doll and her friends.

 

Constructed entirely of cardboard, the Dream House is huge, measuring 26 inches wide when closed. It unfolds into a classic mid-century home, complete with fold-up cardboard furniture of surprising sturdiness, and lots of accessories, including records, an incredibly cool floor lamp, a big ol' TV and hi fi, and a framed picture of Ken.

 Speaking of Ken...my house came with the closet entirely filled with Ken clothes. Maybe he shacked up here for awhile back in the swingin' 60s...