Wacky Bat

This wacky wee bat, 7 inches tall, 

was another of this season's creations 

by one of my favorite primitive doll artists. 

Have a happy Halloween! Watch out for bats.

Primitive Witch Doll

Another Halloween doll by one of my favorite primitive artists, this quirky 16 inch witch flies through the cornstalks on her twig broom.

Her funny face is worth a closeup, I think. Isn't it fabulously freaky?

Ghostly Dolly

Each October, one of my favorite primitive doll artists makes another batch of fantastic Halloween pieces. This hand sewn and delicately aged muslin ghost just drifted in. He holds a rusty old key; perhaps it unlocks the tomb behind him.

Boo!

Spooky Doll Heads

Spooky old doll heads. They're always watching...

Yard Sale Finds: Vintage Toys

This year's Yard Sale Trail, a 200+ mile route along the shoreline of eastern Michigan, turned up some nice finds (although nothing can really top last year's discovery of a vintage playground spring rider).


First find: a 1972 Come Home Snoopy! Colorforms set. I adore Colorforms, and Snoopy stuff is pretty cool too, but what really made this a great score was the fact that its original owner wrote her name and the date she received it inside the box lid. If only all old toys came with such provenance...

Janice Blackburn, I've got your Snoopy Colorforms! 

(Also, thank you for taking such good care of your toys.)

The next find was also a character toy: a 1962 Barney Rubble doll (of Flintstones fame) made by Knickerbocker. 11 1/2 inches tall, the odd doll retains its original clothes. I don't know why they made his hair green, but that is also original. A few sales down the road, I got this little 5 1/2 inch vintage plastic Fred Flintstone, and happily reunited the two best friends. 

Spotted from the road was this 22 inch vintage tin dollhouse still full of its original plastic furniture, made by Wolverine. It's the epitome of suburban living, circa the 1950s-60s.

Coming up tomorrow: a long-lost childhood toy found again on the Yard Sale Trail!

1967 Mini-Martians Dolls, House, and Space Ship

The Mini-Martians have landed! I've finally snagged one of the hardest to find and most sought toys on my wish list: the Mini Martians, made in Japan in 1967 by Swedlin as an exclusive for Sears department store.

 1967 Sears catalog ad.

A perfect confluence of the mid-1960s mod, space-race, and small doll fads, the Mini-Martians were 4 1/2 inch tall vinyl figures with moveable arms and heads, dressed in day-glo "Carnaby Comet" fashions. Like so many dolls of this period, the Martians had a vinyl dollhouse with a vacuum-formed, brittle plastic interior. Their scarcest accessory was a blue flying saucer car.  Made for such a short time for a limited marketplace, and from fragile materials, the Martians are rare finds today.

 The Mini-Martians Star House, 15 1/2 inches wide.

Inside the Star House, the Mini-Martians had a sleeping loft, closet with space suits, a space viewer screen, a panoramic window with a lovely view of the galaxy, and a parking terrace for an (attached) jet car. 

The original catalog ad reads:

 

"Martian Star House. $3.99.

Far beyond earth's bustling pace Mini-Martians dwell at ease. Zooming around in 'outer space,' Mini-Martians live and play. Nestled among the stars and comets...a home so streamlined, all their own. Brightly colored outside and in. Space car parks on terrace platform. Two elevated bunks for sleeping. Video scanner to check on pals...Vinyl house closes for visits to 'other planets.' "

This toy came out a few years before I was around, but if I had been, that dreamy ad copy alone would have sold me. Who wouldn't want to live in a house of her own nestled among the stars and comets?

Inside the Star House.

Sleeping bunks.

Closet with space suits hanging on the wall.

Video scanner. 

 Star Car parked on the terrace.

The Martians themselves are adorable and funky, dressed in brightly colored felt and metallic foil clothing with teeny tiny space boots (often missing). Each Martian came with a name, described in the catalog copy, which introduced them thusly:

"Mini-Martians. $1.49 each.

Futuristic sprites a mere 4 1/2 inches tall. They'll take you to their world above where make-believe is so much fun...Remove boots for barefoot space walks. Dressed in supersonic styles. From Japan. Collect all 6 and have your own Mini-Martian community."

I'm a few short of a community, but was lucky to find 2 in minty condition (with their boots, even!), while the house came with a couple of more-played-with Martians.

 Professor Pook appears to be the villian of the bunch. 

He's got those sinister-looking pointy-down eyebrows...

Marti is the boy Martian, while Bonnie, below, 

in her odd space visor, is one of the girls.

And here is the seldom-seen "Jet Car," 

for jaunts around the universe.

 Blasting off...

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 8, Rochester

The city of Rochester was built on the site of earlier Neolithic, Celtic, and Roman settlements along the river Medway. Needless to say, it is rich in history. England's second-oldest cathedral is here, founded in 604 AD, right alongside an atmospheric ruin, a Norman castle dating to 1127.

Rochester Cathedral

This cathedral was filled with particularly beautiful and interesting doors. Here is a sampling:

An intriguing passageway in the Cathedral.

Rochester Castle, like its cousin in Lewes, suddenly pops up between two buildings in the shopping district:

 Rochester Castle

Unlike Dover Castle, which is in good repair and was used militarily until recent times, Rochester Castle is a spooky ruin, open to the elements:

A tea break with more scones was followed by a visit to a dollhouse miniatures shop, where I got a tiny tea cake stand filled with itty bitty pastries, the perfect thing to bring home to my dollhouse residents.

Real tea cakes.

Don't they both look delicious?

Not real tea cakes.

A second-hand bookshop had a wonderful surprise inside. In one corner, shelves, cabinets, and cases were filled with small items dug up from local river banks, Victorian outhouse sites and rubbish dumps, and old cellars, the places where people disposed of things in the days before trash pickup services. (The centuries-old clay pipes mentioned in an earlier post came from this riverside.) The shop had shelves and shelves full of dug up old stoneware beer bottles, Victorian quack medicine containers, and even poison bottles! I got a handful of miniature china doll heads and a dollhouse chamber pot here, all locally excavated.

Everything seen here was dug up locally. 

Note the "Poison Bottle" sign on the top middle shelf, 

and "Victorian Quack Cures" below.

Dug up dollies, all miniatures.

 A dug up dollhouse doll head and chamber pot.

Rochester had a number of antique shops, and this one turned up two wonderful vintage teddy bears well-spotted by tour leaders Terry and Doris, who pointed me to the store. (Thank you Terry and Doris!)

 I got this 1950s Chad Valley ted with lovely curly mohair,

and a characteristically goofy-looking 

Pedigree, made in Ireland.

Coming up next: Day 9, Faversham (our last day in England.)

Antiquing Trip to England: Day Four, Lewes

Our fourth day in England was my very favorite of the whole trip (with Canterbury a close second, due to our visit to a teddy bear factory there). The town of Lewes (pronounced LOO-IS) is an antiquer's dream, hosting 13 antique shops, some with over 100 dealer booths inside.

Lewes is beautifully set in a valley just beneath the South Downs, chalk hills that run above the coast in the southeastern corner of Great Britain. It has been occupied since prehistoric times. Romans had a settlement here, and Saxons built a castle, which pops up on the unsuspecting shopper between a couple of stores on the high street.

Lewes Castle.

The main shopping area houses unique stores in lovely old buildings. This one, a second-hand book store called the Fifteenth Century Bookshop, was one of my favorites. (Click on it to magnify and see more details: it's magnificently ancient.)

Lewes is also home to Harveys, a beautiful brewery founded in 1790.

The highlight for me was Sue Pearson's famous teddy bear shop. Sue is an expert in antique and vintage bears, with several published books to her credit. Bears and Bygones was housed in a tiny storefront, but had a huge range of carefully selected antique, vintage, and modern bears. Here's a glimpse inside:

Doesn't this one look sort of like Winston Churchill?

It was difficult choosing at Sue Pearson's, but I finally settled on this couple, a 1930s English gentleman wearing a vintage sailor shirt, and a lovely 1920s American lady in her garden party dress and lace collar:

A charming couple of character bears.

From Sue's stock of modern artist bears, I chose this tiny "tea bag" ted, created by a Belgian artist whose work is quite difficult to find. Just 5 inches tall, he has a very unusual face that was most appealing.

After the teddy bear shop, it was time to begin exploring the antique stores. Our first stop was Church Hill Antiques Centre, housed, as its name suggests, in an old re-purposed church.

A sign we like to see!

A view inside the Church Hill Antiques Centre: 

Victorian taxidermy, old books, and china.

I found a really cool old toy in this antique shop: a lithographed tin bank in the form of a dollhouse, Queen Mary's Dollhouse, to be exact. Queen Mary's dollhouse was created specifically for her in the 1920s. It was designed by a famous British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, and furnished with incredible miniatures donated by over 1,500 of the finest craftspeople in the country. The house is massive (the largest dollhouse in the world) and unbelievably detailed: water runs in the taps; fine champagne fills the tiny bottles in the wine cellar; and famous authors wrote miniature versions of works in their own hand for the library. 

This tin dollhouse bank was made by two firms who contributed items to the real dollhouse, and was sold to raise money for the Queen's favorite charities. Incredibly, the bank still had its original key attached, and there were eight old English coins (pennies, half-pennies, and farthings) inside, dating from 1885-1926.

Detail of the lithography, showing the dollhouse interior,

complete with a garage full of cars at the lowest level.

The text on the underside of the bank reads:

"Made in England

Model of 

The Queen's Dolls' House

Issued by 

Cauldon Potteries Ltd., Stoke-on-Trent

(Potters to Her Majesty the Queen)

in conjunction with

Chubb & Son's Lock & Safe Co., Ltd.,

128 Queen Victoria St., London, E.C. 1

Produced by Special Permission of H.M. The Queen,

whose charities benefit by the sale of each model.

Cauldon Potteries supplied miniature china for the Queen's Dolls' House, and Chubb & Son's Lock and Safe Co., a miniature Chubb safe to protect the Queen's Dolls Jewels."

After this great find, it was on to the next antique shop: the Lewes Antiques Centre. 

 Another sign we're happy to see...

...and still another!

The Lewes Antiques Centre had loads of old toys over its four floors, including this beautiful case holding a 1930s Noah's Ark and a bunch of bears:

I liberated this adorable vintage ted, a 1940s British bear with a cheery disposition:

 

By skipping lunch (we didn't even stop for our usual scone break) we made it to each and every one of the antique shops in town. We had our priorities straight, for sure!

 A very enticing antique shop window.

Our last stop was the Lewes Flea Market, housed in a beautiful Victorian building, with antiques over two floors. 

 An enticing view through the open doorway.

Yet another welcoming sign.

This wasn't really a flea market, as its name suggested. It was a fully realized antiques shop, and the bric-a-brac was invitingly dense:

This taxidermied bear wearing a fez pointed the way
to various collectibles.

I found a beautiful antique German bisque doll here, complete with old clothes and shoes, including a lovingly hand-knit sweater and matching stockings. Made by Goebel circa 1900, she measures a hefty 18 inches tall.

Doesn't she look like she's just been happily surprised by something?

My last find in Lewes was this vintage miniature wooden toy village, made in Germany. These little sets make great accessories for dolls and teddy bears, and are just lots of fun to play with. Villages like these have been made in Germany for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Finally, we limped (quite literally) back to the coach with our bags of finds. My new Wooly Bear sat next to me on the ride back to our hotel, guide books at the ready as we prepared for tomorrow.

Coming up next: Day 5, the village of Tenterden and a visit to Pashley Manor Gardens.