Freaky Marx Dollhouse Family

I found this family of vintage dollhouse dolls in their original box while antiquing for my birthday last weekend. They were made by the Marx Company in the early 1960s, and have plastic heads, hands, and shoes on poseable wire bodies with felt clothing. The children are about three inches tall, the parents five.

They're really not terribly attractive dolls, and they're also not nearly as old as most of the dollhouse pieces I usually collect. But here's why I bought them: their faces. Fast, haphazard painting by a factory line employee in Hong Kong has unintentionally resulted in crazy expressions. Mom looks like she's smelled something bad, and dad looks...well, I can't quite place his expression. Chagrin? Discomfort? A guilty conscience? The sudden realization that he left the toilet seat up? Stunned disbelief at learning the swaddled baby isn't his? Who knows, but it's definitely amusing.

Meanwhile, brother's expression can only be described as "shifty", as he glances toward his innocent little sister, malice clearly apparent in his cold, beady eyes:

Marx Troll Village

A few months ago, back when I did my troll blog-a-thon, I mentioned my longing for the elusive 1960s Marx Troll Village playset. I finally got one for my birthday: yay! 

The Marx Toy Company made all sorts of playsets like these back in the 1950s and '60s: western ranches, medieval castles, army forts, family farms, and pretty much any other imaginative setting a kid could want, complete with tiny figures, buildings, and a box or case that held all the parts.

The Troll Village is one of their most unusual such sets, as well as one of their smallest. The box measures 10 inches wide, and the little trolls within are only 1 1/2 inches tall, the size of a typical gumball machine prize troll. The set includes trolls, animals, fences, rocks, trees and foliage, a little house, and caves. Originally it also had a printed vinyl playmat, but this is often missing from the set, as it is with mine. Still, it's a fantastic toy for troll lovers, and no good troll collection can consider itself complete without one.

 The village. As you can see, many pieces are delightfully
out of scale with each other.

The little troll house is just 4 inches tall, with a crazy roofline.

Hangin' out in the troll cave...

Two of Troll Village's denizens.
As you can see from the troll in the back,
the village is not officially a nudist colony.

For a sense of scale, a Troll Village troll is on the right,
next to a standard-sized, 3 inch troll
also made by Marx. Their trolls have a very distinctive appearance.

1871 Bliss Building Blocks

The name "Bliss," when speaking of antique toys, usually brings to mind their famed lithographed paper dollhouses. But the American company made other toys as well, including this set of small wooden blocks, still in their original 7 1/2 tall box with its paper label intact. I spotted these on a birthday antiquing trip last weekend, and was thrilled to find them.They were only $20, which seemed like a steal for such a lovely, and old, toy.

The label dates the set to 1871, and the text features one of the earliest toy safety endorsements I've ever read:

"No. 248.

Improved Architectural Building

BLOCKS

Free from PAINT or other POISONOUS colorings.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1871,

by R. Bliss Manf'G. Co., in the Office of the Commissioner 

of Patents at Washington."

Silver Dollhouse Decanter Set

I'm always looking for interesting little things to add to my dollhouses, and I found this on my birthday antiquing trip over the weekend: a silver decanter set. It has a Mexican silver hallmark on the underside of the tray, and appears to have some age to it, although I couldn't say exactly how old it may be. The tray measures a little over 4 inches wide, and the mugs are just 1/2 an inch tall. The keg-shaped decanter has a turquoise stopper, and rests on a stand.

My seven inch German doll is just the right size to serve as a barmaid. I expect the teddy bears will be arriving soon, ready to throw a few pints back...

Antique Bisque Doll Head

My sister is a minimalist, and doesn't share my appreciation for antiques, which she disdainfully refers to as "a bunch of old junk." For my recent birthday, I took myself on an antiquing shopping spree, and my sister later asked me what I found. "Ooooh: an absolutely fantastic broken old doll head," I replied, beaming over the beautifully sculpted and painted bisque head, circa the 1880s. My sister looked at me scornfully, and said, "You bought a broken doll head?" Yes. I did. But just look at her: she's beautiful! And technically speaking, it's only her shoulderplate that's broken...