1930s Little Orphan Annie Child's Teapot

It's always exciting to find a completer item while antiquing, and at a show this past weekend, I discovered this 1930s child's Little Orphan Annie lusterware teapot, 3 inches wide. I've had a couple of plates and a cup for ages, and even though the pot is missing its lid, it was still a very satisfying find.   Arf!

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:

1920s-'30s Dollhouse Hoosier Cabinet

I love Hoosier cabinets. It's strange, really: I don't cook or bake; in fact, my own kitchen serves primarily as display space for my PEZ dispenser collection and vintage toy stoves. But for some reason, I find Hoosier cabinets fascinating.
Their nostalgic appeal is undeniable, and it's ironically amplified the smaller the cabinet gets. Currently, I have 2 "life-size" Hoosiers, a homemade child's version, a doll-sized cabinet, and now, found at a weekend antique show, an even smaller dollhouse variety.

This wooden Hoosier measures 6 1/2  inches tall, and came with the accessories and kitchen chair shown. It was made by the Wisconsin Toy Company, a short-lived firm that manufactured dollhouse furniture in the 1920s and '30s. All the cupboards, drawers, and the pull-out shelf are functional.

My 5 inch dollhouse doll gives a sense of the Hoosier's scale. Below, the cabinet is fully stocked with all sorts of goodies. (As I look at this picture, I realize my dollhouse denizens actually have better supplied cupboards than I do...)

Antique Show Report

I attended my first outdoor antique show of the season this past weekend, and it was a doozy. Thunderstorms, hailstones, sheets of freezing cold rain, and 45 m.p.h. winds that lasted for about three hours....one might think an outdoor show would be cancelled in such conditions, but no...not even when four tents blew over and one of the dealers was (reportedly) knocked unconscious by a pole.

I did wait for the worst of the wind to subside (and for all the poles to be better secured), but once I found I could walk upright in the face of the zephyr, I plodded on. One of my dealer friends greeted me with a shout (so as to be heard over the wind): "Hey Tracy! Guess we're the tough ones, huh?" Her neighboring dealer replied, "Or the stupid ones..." I suppose those of us who braved the conditions were a bit of both. I went home with windburn, shoes full of mud, and a severe chill, but I scored several treasures, and here's the great part: they were all 1/2 off, or 2 for 1, and one thing was even FREE! because all the dealers wanted to get the heck out of there.

I got a vintage 4 machine vending unit that had been priced at $100 for only $40, because the dealer was so anxious for someone to haul it out of the mud. That someone was me, and joy of joys, when I got it home and cleaned it out, I found a whole bunch of 1950s-60s gumball machine prizes in the bottom of one of the units. They were actually gumball prizes I've paid $15 apiece for before, so I think I came out pretty well on this deal, even though the machines need lots of restoration.

Other finds included:

--2 fantastic, early vintage trolls, in original outfits (yep, there's more of them coming)
--a 1930s dollhouse-sized hoosier cabinet, kitchen chair, and accessories
--an assortment of dolly-sized antique dishes, teasets, and baking ware
--2 vintage board games, including the hard-to-find Mr. Ree, with almost all its parts
--a 1930s bisque figurine Cracker Jack prize (found in a box of broken junk for only a quarter!)
--a 1930s Little Orphan Annie lusterware child's teapot, which goes with a set I already have that is, coincidentally, missing its teapot
--a 1930s Buck Rogers Big Little Book and a 1940s Mandrake the Magician one

Pictures to come soon, once I'm over my cold.