Musical Fisher Price Circus Wagon

Here's another vintage Fisher Price circus piece: the musical Circus Wagon, made in the early 1940s. The wooden pull toy measures about 13 inches long. As it's pulled, the band leader's arms move up and down, as if he's playing the pipe organ, and a melodious song plinks and plonks. The lithographed paper features wonderful anthropomorphic pipes and an elephant who looks suspiciously like an unlicensed "Dumbo" film clone.

Chein Ferris Wheel

Made in the 1930s by the Chein company, this tin litho ferris wheel is 16 inches tall. The little cars have images of children riding in them, and the center spoke bears the ride's name, "Hercules," along with a fabulous smiling face. This toy just makes me happy whenever I look at it.

 Here it is in its natural habitat, my display of circusy toys.

Circus Elephant Push-Toy

One of my favorite circus-themed toys is this vintage plush elephant on wheels, probably made in England in the 1950s. It's sized for a child to push as he or she walks behind it. My little Merrythought bear loves to go along for the ride.

Antique Ten-Pins

I don't know why, but I love old wooden ten-pins. They're just beautiful objects, with their patina revealing their age and use. I cluster them around the house in little groupings, and they just make me smile as they remind me of carnivals and games. These vary in age, with the oldest from the 1900s and the latest from the 1940s, and the tallest is about 6 inches high.

Antique Electric Eye Circus Bear

I like old circus and carnival items for their color, their vibrancy, their novelty and historic appeal. But a sad presence in circuses of days gone by (still seen in some places today, I'm afraid) is the dancing bear. For centuries, traveling showmen have trained captive bears to dance at the end of a chain connected to a ring through the bear's nose. This of course, was cruel in the extreme, and nothing can excuse such a practice. From a historical standpoint, however, rare antique teddies designed as circus bears are quite desirable.

 This one dates to around 1906-1908, and is an American-made electric eye bear. His eyes are actually tiny lightbulbs. Inside his torso is a battery pack, which caused his eyes to flash when the switch hidden inside his ear was squeezed. Like most electric eye bears, he is quite large (23 inches tall) and has unjointed legs. 

These electric eye bears were a huge fad back in their day, sort of the 1900s equivalent of the 1980s Cabbage Patch Kid craze. Even so, they are hard to find today, especially with their fragile glass eyes intact. This one still has his nose ring and collar (which causes many visitors to quizzically ask if he's a punk rocker bear) but has lost his leash.

After his hard life in showbiz, he now lives comfortably in retirement at my house, where he regales the other bears with tales of life on the road.

 

1932 Fisher Price Big Performing Circus

One of my most beautiful circus toys, and one of the hardest to find, is this, the Big Performing Circus made by Fisher Price in 1932, its second year of business.

 The centerpiece of the set is a 16 inch long wooden circus wagon, complete with doors that open, a roof that lifts off for easy access, and a pull string. The wagon was actually strong enough for children to ride on, and it came filled with beautifully lithographed jointed wooden animals, along with props for them to perform with, like barrels and ladders, and a clown to organize the whole affair.

The large number of pieces and the heavy play use this popular item received over the years makes them scarce today. Fisher Price went on to produce circus themed playsets right up to current times, but this is by far their most wonderful.

Chalkware Carnival Prizes

I love old chalkware carnival prizes. They're just fun, colorful, delightful objects to have around. These three date from the 1950s, the largest is 12 1/2 inches tall, and they represent a couple of Kewpie-type characters and a circus horse.  And one has a secret...

...the smaller figure wearing the sailor hat has a message penned underneath which reads: "John won this August 27, 1960. Homecoming at Ubly." Ubly is a tiny village in rural Michigan, and for non-American readers, Homecoming is a major high school social event, featuring a formal dance, parties, and, in this case, a carnival. I don't know who John was, but I get the feeling he and the recipient of this prize ended up happily married, as she treasured and saved this for 50 years...

Vintage Carnival Duck Pond Game Pieces

My favorite carnival game of all time is the Duck Pond, because, really, who doesn't like a game where you're guaranteed to win a prize, regardless of your lack of skill? All you have to do is pick up a little plastic duck floating in the artificial pond, turn it over, and the number marked underneath corresponds to the prize you win. Who cares that the prizes are flimsy plastic tchotchkes ordered by the ton: you won something! Yay!

I was very lucky to find some vintage Duck Pond ducks for sale recently. Those on the left are carnival-used, while those on the right, on the bobbing bases, are unsold old store stock.

Aren't they cute?!

These ones, I think, have a rather startled expression on their faces.

Coming Up in July...

My town just had its annual summer carnival, and my sweetie and I attended. He won me a stuffed toy (yay!), and this, naturally, has put me in the mood for all things circus-y and carnival-y. So coming up this month: vintage circus and carnival souvenirs and toys, including sideshow playsets made by Marx and Cracker Jack, a musical wooden bandleader pull toy by Fisher Price, chalkware prizes, and lots more!

Antique Dollhouse Food

My very favorite type of dollhouse miniature is antique dollhouse food. I actually collected dollhouse food long before I collected dollhouses, dolls, or furniture.

I think my interest in miniature foods goes back to seeing the illustrations in Beatrix Potter's 1904 book, The Tale of Two Bad Mice. In the story, two mice break into a dollhouse and attempt to eat the scrumptious looking dinner laid out on the table. When they discover the food is made of plaster and glued to the plates, they smash it to bits in frustration and then go on a destructive rampage as they burglarize the house. The dollies, upon returning home, immediately engage a Steiff policeman doll to watch over their residence.

I've always found the illustrations of the dollhouse food in The Tale of Two Bad Mice to be charming and captivating:

and I was thrilled last year to find an antique dollhouse ham very like the one in the illustration (German, circa the 1900s):

My oldest piece of dollhouse food is this tiny ham shown below, about 1 1/4 inch wide, made of a papier-mache-like substance on a pressed paper plate. It came from Germany in the mid 1800s. It's not pretty, but it's old, and it's amazing to me how something so small and fragile has survived:

 My very best sets of antique miniature food are these two, made in France in the 1880s. The items are painted plaster, in a scale a bit larger than 1" to 1 foot; I think they may have been meant for dolls rather than dollhouses. They are unplayed with; in fact, most of the pieces are still tied down with their original twine. The boxes feature beautifully lithographed labels with scenes of little bakers cooking (and drinking!) and children dining.

 

I love the old stove in this image, and the

oversized frying pan on the burner.

That's some giant omelet they're making!

And this image has so much to appreciate: the lovely cupboard on the right; the gorgeously upholstered chairs; the children's clothing; the finely detailed dishes and embroidered tablecloth...

And here's what's inside: beautiful miniature play food, some recognizable to me (those hams again!) some not (that flat pink and white thing in the upper left corner. Maybe it's some sort of French regional specialty):

Here are the items in profile, to give a sense of their proportions. The pieces average between 2 and 3 inches long:

And some detail close-ups:

A very fancy ham.

A fishy entree.

A ham (again), lobster, what looks like eggs in a salad....but I'm not sure what that is in the upper right. Maybe a fruitcake?

For some reason (perhaps the Beatrix Potter influence again) I prefer the primitive style of these old pieces to our modern hyper-realistic dollhouse food. Even though today's amazingly crafted pieces look so authentic, these crude-by comparison miniatures have a special charm of their own. And, after all, they fooled the mice in the story, so they must look real enough!

Big Nosed Antique American Bear

My most recent antique teddy acquisition is this 14 inch 1908 American bear, maker unknown. He's got a fabulous face, with low set ears and a huge nose that give him a cute, comical appearance (even with a little bit of his nose missing).

 He came to me from one of my favorite dealers in England, dressed as shown. This is, of course, a generalization, but I've found that British teddy bear collectors seem to favor dressing and accessorizing their bears, while their American counterparts tend to prefer their teddies to be...well...bare. (Pun intended.) Almost every antique bear I've acquired from England has come dressed, often in clothes hand knit just for them. The difficult thing for me is deciding whether to leave them that way. I'm stumped with this one, because he looks rather charming in his little outfit, and it's clear that he's worn it for a long time. But his blond mohair is in great shape, and it seems a shame to hide it, and his spectacular, early American style conformation, underneath all those clothes...

1930s Converse Dollhouse

A recent find was this 1930s Converse dollhouse, made of lithographed wood (the design is printed directly onto the wood, not onto applied paper). It's missing its two front porch pillars, but it's still a lovely little cottage, I thought. It measures 12 inches square by 10 1/2 inches tall, and opens from the right side.

 Access to the single room inside is via the end wall which opens with a knob instead of the more frequently seen latch.

I've furnished it as a cottage for a little 3 inch dime store teddy bear of similar vintage, with pieces made by the Menasha Woodenware Corporation (fireplace excepted). Menasha was founded in 1849 in Wisconsin, and was originally a maker of wooden barrels, tubs, and related items. In the 1930s, they expanded their line to include wooden dollhouse furniture in the 1" to 1 foot scale. This toy furniture, trademarked "Tyke Toys," is hard to find now as it wasn't made for very long, but it kept the company in business through the Great Depression. Menasha pieces are often misidentified as Strombecker, as the two firm's products are rather similar.

A view of the inside from above, with the roof removed.

Two of my favorite Menasha pieces are the kitchen cupboard and the stove.

Looks like the little bear is getting ready to make a berry pie...

Odd Antique Teddy Bear

Last year I found this antique teddy like no bear I've ever seen. She's American and probably dates to the early 1920s, but other than that I'm stumped by her. She has the most unusual body construction:  her proportions are odd, with long, thick, perfectly straight arms and short, equally thick legs with very curved tops. Her torso is incredibly stout, and reminds me of a gorilla, or a wrestler. But her face is charming, with an inset cloth nose and a quirky smile, and I couldn't resist her.

Teddy Bear in a Tin

Antique toy collecting is, in many ways, a treasure hunt, and treasures can sometimes be hiding in the most unlikely of places...like this rusty five inch wide tin box. 

 Nasty looking, isn't it? I'm amazed it wasn't just 

thrown out long ago...

But I'm extremely grateful it wasn't, because inside, 

where she clearly has lived for a very long time, 

was this four inch tall c.1910 Steiff bear and her silver tea set, 

all nestled in an antique embroidered silk cloth:

 Her tea set is itty bitty: the tray is two and a half inches long, 

and the teapot is just an inch tall.

For a sense of the bear's smallness, here she is nestled in my hand:

I thought she might appreciate being out of her box after such a long time tucked away, so here she is all moved into my antique tin kitchen, where she can make as much tea as she likes:

Star Wars Day at My Library

We hosted a Star Wars Day at my library over the past weekend, featuring costumed characters from the 501st and Rebel Legions, who were amazing. (Check out their websites here and here.)

My favorite picture from the event is below. We found the perfect book for Darth Vader on our self-help shelves: Coping With Limb Loss: a Practical Guide to Living With Amputation for You and Your Family (this is, of course, only funny if you know that the character loses all of his limbs to lightsaber blows over the course of the films).

Vintage Travel Souvenir Display

Some Other Stuff I collect besides old toys: vintage travel souvenirs. The kitschier they are, the better I like them. Today is the last day of school here in my town, and the kids are getting ready to start their summer vacation. I thought this might be a good time to post some pics from a display I did at my library, featuring my favorite vintage travel souvenirs. Enjoy the trip!

Some favorite pieces: