Has anyone ever seen a doll house like this one? My yardsale find a month or so ago was a doll house--$3--which included a small box of mixed furniture.
"It's old," the woman shrugged, when I asked her about it. I didn't NEED it, of course, but I certainly wanted it, having had a fascination with doll houses and miniatures that dates back to childhood. And for $3--well, I certainly couldn't just LEAVE it there, unappreciated. I rationalized that I would at the very least put it in my booth at the local antique/vintage mall--knowing I probably wouldn't. I brought it home and left it in the garage for a day until my husband noticed it and I cautiously told him about my find. "Quite a bargain!" was his response, and I heaved an inward sigh of relief that he had not gone into the usual "WHERE are you going to put it?" mode. I cleaned it up and surveyed my find.
"It's old," the woman shrugged, when I asked her about it. I didn't NEED it, of course, but I certainly wanted it, having had a fascination with doll houses and miniatures that dates back to childhood. And for $3--well, I certainly couldn't just LEAVE it there, unappreciated. I rationalized that I would at the very least put it in my booth at the local antique/vintage mall--knowing I probably wouldn't. I brought it home and left it in the garage for a day until my husband noticed it and I cautiously told him about my find. "Quite a bargain!" was his response, and I heaved an inward sigh of relief that he had not gone into the usual "WHERE are you going to put it?" mode. I cleaned it up and surveyed my find.
Kind of a cool doll house--roughly 25x15x18 inches with gray brick stamped outer walls made of that pressed board like the baseboard to our vintage Fisher Price Tudor house.
The roof was gray plastic and moulded so that it appeared to be cedar shake shingles. The base and the floors of the dollhouse were stamped lithograph tin or steel, however. The upstairs roof contained a big triangular hole where the roof piece was obviously missing--but the end window piece was there. It wasn't perfect. obviously some window trim was missing from both the upstairs window piece and the downstairs picture window--but the lithographs on the tin were in great shape and so were the walls and roof. Overall I was quite pleased. I put the existing furniture inside and admired it.
It was the weeks before Christmas, however, and I really didn't have a lot of time. I put the dollhouse on top of the piano in the playroom and forgot about it until during Christmas holidays when my grandchildren (technically step-grandchildren, but after 30 years of marriage those big girls are mine too) were here and I was showing it to my youngest granddaughter. She's only three and was a little young for the delicacy of some of the pieces, so after a bit I put this one back on the piano and got out the Fisher Price TownHouse Dollhouse and a box of the furniture/people that went with it--much more little kid friendly (though her Dad DID manage to break the latch on it on their last visit by manhandling it open instead of figuring out how it worked ...sigh...)
The roof was gray plastic and moulded so that it appeared to be cedar shake shingles. The base and the floors of the dollhouse were stamped lithograph tin or steel, however. The upstairs roof contained a big triangular hole where the roof piece was obviously missing--but the end window piece was there. It wasn't perfect. obviously some window trim was missing from both the upstairs window piece and the downstairs picture window--but the lithographs on the tin were in great shape and so were the walls and roof. Overall I was quite pleased. I put the existing furniture inside and admired it.
It was the weeks before Christmas, however, and I really didn't have a lot of time. I put the dollhouse on top of the piano in the playroom and forgot about it until during Christmas holidays when my grandchildren (technically step-grandchildren, but after 30 years of marriage those big girls are mine too) were here and I was showing it to my youngest granddaughter. She's only three and was a little young for the delicacy of some of the pieces, so after a bit I put this one back on the piano and got out the Fisher Price TownHouse Dollhouse and a box of the furniture/people that went with it--much more little kid friendly (though her Dad DID manage to break the latch on it on their last visit by manhandling it open instead of figuring out how it worked ...sigh...)
Several nights ago I got a cardboard box and while my husband and I streamed/watched a british Midsommer Murders mystery, I measured, cut, ducktaped, and constructed a replacement roof for the rear dormer window of my newest dollhouse. I figured I'd learn on a cardboard version and then try to do it out of hobby basswood later on--if I decided to keep the doll house. The results aren't too bad--I still need to glue the end wall/window to the new roof section (it's held in place with small pieces of duck tape at the moment, which look tacky)--but it will do for now and it's better than it was before.
Yesterday I surfed the net looking for information to identify my latest dollhouse.
I wasn't successful. I found some nice blogs from people who collect REALLY NICE older dollhouses--my stuff is obviously much later than those doll houses. I saw photos of Fisher Price's FIRST dollhouse, (cool site: http://mydreamdollhouse.com/ ) a la 1978 and the roof on it is VERY similar to my doll house, but the interior of mine is tin/steel. Another cool site is http://www.mckendry.net/DOLLHOUSES/1890s.htm which gives a history and photos of doll houses from until 1990. Still didn't see my exact doll house, though I did see a piece of furniture that I think I have in the box--so maybe Tomy? I took more pictures--including photos of the interior and the furniture that came with the house.
After looking at the fancy dollhouses out there I realize that this dollhouse is pretty generic--no interior graphics--just plain walls. The four rooms--two upstairs, two downstairs, have very simple patterns stamped on the metal. The CHIMNEY of this dollhouse looks EXACTLY like the chimney listed in replacement parts on the Fisher Price mydreamdollhouse site--the chimney that came with that 1978 dollhouse--but this chimney is gray--and none of those chimneys were.
