Antique Doll Kitchen

One of this year's most extravagant Christmas gifts, this unusual antique doll kitchen came with interesting provenance.

From the collection of Evelyn Ackerman, an authority on antique dollhouses (particularly those of the German firm, Gottschalk) it is pictured in one of the books she authored, The Genius of Moritz Gottschalk. 

It's lost a few bits since that photo was taken some years ago, but still has enough items for a doll to do her holiday cooking. Measuring 10.5 inches high by 14 inches wide, the wooden kitchen features lithographed paper in patterns of brick and tile, an opening stove door, a towel rack, a tin sink, lattice work trim, and its original pot and wash boiler.

Inscribed on the bottom of the kitchen is its model number and a message: "Janie from Uncle Charlie 1917." The play wear on this kitchen shows how much Janie enjoyed it, but it's also clear she treasured it carefully for many years. Uncle Charlie, wherever you are now, thank you for the doll kitchen: it's a beautiful toy!

Antique toys for Christmas, 2013.

Santa Was Here!

Santa has been and gone, and left behind some great toys. (There they are, all wrapped up in the back of his old pedal car.)

This year's Christmas loot included one of the scarcest (and strangest) of all vintage Mr. Potato Head items, along with a tiny antique dollhouse, a rare old doll kitchen, and a 1908 Steiff bear. Pics coming soon.

Vintage Jack O' Lanterns

Collecting vintage jack o' lanterns can be very addictive. Though they were mass produced, there were many different styles, and they all have individual character due to their own particular aging and wear.

These are American, and date circa the 1940s. Made of a pulp/composition material, they have paper face inserts, and were meant to be used with real candles inside. Some still have traces of melted wax in their interiors, and it's incredible that they all didn't just go up in flames.

These range in size from about 3.5 inches to 10 inches tall.

These two small lanterns were made from the same mold, but have distinctively different appearances due to the paper inserts used and the wear to their exteriors.

This large jack o' lantern is one of my favorites. It's open nose is unusual, and it has a very expressive face.

Eyelash adorned, this jack o' lantern's paper insert is from an antique German variety, but it suits this American pumpkin well. It's common to find these jack o' lanterns missing their paper faces, or with replacements, as the originals did sometimes succumb to the candle flames.

Pumpkinmobile Postcard

Halloween is fast approaching, and so is the pumpkin headed driver of the automobile on this antique Halloween postcard. Circa the early 1900s.

Note the jack o' lantern headlights, a clever touch. 

Creepy Antique Halloween Squeaker

One of the creepiest antique Halloween items in my collection is this little noisemaker. Circa 1915, it was made in Germany of lithographed cardboard and fragile paper, and is just under 3 inches tall.

The ghoulish face has eyes that move and change when the bellows behind are squeezed. Originally, it would have made a squeaky sound as well, but that part of the noisemaker has long since ruptured.

This squeaker was one from a set of several different faces. Some, like this one, featured moving eyes, while others had tongues that stuck out when the bellows were squeezed.

These white faces represent mangelwurzals, large, beet-like root vegetables used in some parts of the world instead of pumpkins for making jack o' lanterns. There was a similar set printed on orange cardboard representing the more familiar pumpkins.

Some of the other pieces from this set, along with the pumpkin version, can be seen in the books  Halloween in America, by Stuart Schneider (page 27 of the 1995 edition) and More Halloween Collectibles: Anthropomorphic Vegetables and Fruits of Halloween, by Pamela E. Apkarian-Russell (page 95.)