I particularly want to draw your attention to two recent followers' blogs: El cuartin de juguete and architoys. Both have posted about things that will look very familiar!
Remember the Villa Hogarin and Hogarin family on Florine's blog?
Here is Papa Hogarin on El cuarte de juguete's blog:
Callsmall has found some wonderful fold-up dolls houses, and posted about one by Winthrop Toys in April:
From El Cuartin's blog, I learned that the same house was made in Spain by Daypa:
Have a look at the other dolls houses and toys on this blog, too!
While El Cuartin posts in Spanish, Architoys is a Portuguese architect. When I checked out his blog recently, I discovered some fascinating posts about construction toys. Remember the Super City set which I bought, and the Skyscraper version which Oese bought? Here is one of the scenes Oese has created with her set:
Architoys discovered that Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland created an installation called "Super City" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2005:
Apparently, the Super City set was released by Ideal in 1967, and withdrawn a year later! (Hmm, didn't Ideal release the Petite Princess line just a couple of years before, and withdraw that too?)
Architoys gives a link to a NY Times slideshow of Douglas Coupland's house, where you can see some of his collection of construction and architectural toys - and the house itself, which looks as if it was built from a Super City set!
When Architoys visited the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg this year, he also went to the German National Museum, and photographed some fantastic dolls house furniture, including this display of cardboard furniture made by Hapa in 1945:
The desk set is the same as my PI Angus Shand has in his office:
- I had not seen the bedroom set before.
There are lots of other interesting posts on architoy's blog, so do have a look. And no, I don't understand Portuguese, but I have learnt how useful google translate can be for a language you don't know!
I love how I can keep learning more information, and getting new perspectives on my dolls house collection, through the world of blogs and other networks on the web :-))
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Hola Rebecca: Muchas gracias por tus comentarios Sobre nuestro blog " El Cuartín de juguete " . Que sepas que Seguimos todas las entradas de tu maravilloso blog aunque no solemos hacer comentarios mas que nada por el idioma . Nos ha hecho mucha ilusión vernos en tu blog . Recibe un beso cariñoso desde España .
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! All the links back and forth. It's great you have a reference for your detective's metal office suite too! Cheers! CM
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! It seems the dollhouse world has always been "a small world" of sharing or "borrowing" designs. Especially enjoyed the info about the Hapa furniture...was Hapa a German firm or just part of the museum display?
ReplyDeletecongratulations on reaching 88!!! i don't know how you keep all that information in your head!! but, keep on researching its important that its not lost along the way.... :-)
ReplyDeleteHola luijuas, muchas gracias! Es un placer para hablar a otros acerca de su blog, que me gusta mucho, y estoy seguro de que muchos otros que también puedan disfrutar. Saludos cordiales desde Australia!
ReplyDeleteHello luijuas, thank you very much! It's a pleasure to tell others about your blog, which I enjoy very much, and I am sure many others will enjoy it too. Warm greetings from Australia!
(I used google translate to write the Spanish above, as sadly I don't know Spanish.)
Hi CM, thank you! I find lots of links between blogs - now, I have put a greeting in Catalan, and Lisa is posting her photos of Barcelona and a Barcelona scene in her house - with a miniature print of a Frida Kahlo painting, which she bought there - and Oese has just done a scene with a portrait of Frida Kahlo! Synchronicity, shared inspiration - certainly shared passion for dolls houses, miniatures and other toys!
ReplyDeleteHi Florine, I'm sure there must be links between these dolls house companies, for the versions to be so similar (same with Bex and Wee Folks, Kleeware and Renwal, etc).
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to see the Hapa sets in architoys photo - I do have the original box for my office set, with a partial label. It is German - the part of the label that remains says Hapa (in a circle) Puppenmöbel (doll furniture), and at the top and bottom: Neuheit! - Novelty! But I didn't know when it was made. (I've now put the Hapa label on the blog post where I showed it, so you should be able to just click on the label and see it!)
Hi Christine, thank you! It's exciting to have 88 followers!
ReplyDeleteAs for keeping all that info in my head - sometimes I'm sure I've seen something before, but cannot work out where, sometimes I forget completely! With the cardboard folding house, I think Callsmall's and luijuas' posts were quite close together - that helps!
So much interesting to see and read in one post, I could stay here for hours! I love the blogs you mentioned, especially Architoys'! The installations and house of Douglas Coupland was so fun to look at, very inspiring and real eye-candy! His house really does look like one of the amazing houses Oese makes with her building set and I love the dize installation on the photo above.
ReplyDeleteSo fun it must have been for you to see your Hapa furniture on the photo from the museum and with a date for it! And so funny you mentioned the Frida Kahlo link between Oese and Lisa's blogs, I had noticed it myself and last week I accidently stumbled upon this post too, on the blog of Elsa Mora, who has built a doll's house model of Frida Kahlo's studio! Even though there are so many miniature bloggers out here, it's a small blog world after all! :-)
Hi! I'm proud to be part of this blogpost. I realize synchronizity so often and I love it too. Pubdoll gave me the hint to the second Frida Kahlo post, awesome!
ReplyDeleteI love Architoys too and I wonder if you (and your interested readers) know this link to a swizerland firm for building-blocks: http://shop.naefspiele.ch/de/tectus.html
greetings from germany
Oese also said (but something funny happened with the comment):
ReplyDeleteAuch ich gratuliere und danke Dir, Rebecca! Zu deinen 88 Lesern, zu deinem riesigen Wissenschatz, für deine Aufmerksamkeit und deinen Spürsinn und dass du alle Informationen auf so angenehme Weise mit uns teilst. Tausend Dank dafür.
Ist es nicht cool, dass es ein Haus gibt, das aussieht, wie mit dem Building-Set gebaut? Ich bin begeistert. Wie schön, dass du mich erwähnt hast.
Die portugiesische Website ist wirklich interessant.
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland
Hi Helene, thank you! I think Polly Line, Arne Vaa, Karl Edo and Helene og Sønn will all gets lots of inspiration from architoy's blog. There are so many wonderful links and overlaps between bloggers' interests and inspirations. The Frida Kahlo studio is wonderful. Have you read Barbara Kingsolver's book The Lacuna? It has some very vivid depictions of life in the Kahlo and Rivera households.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book, but thanks for the tip! I really enjoyed reading The Shield Ring, even though I had to look up words I didn't understand all the time :-) But it was fun to learn the original use of the word corduroy, I knew just the fabric.
ReplyDeleteI have already joined architoys blog after this post. And I liked that you wrote Helene og Sønn instead of the English version :-)
Dear Oese, when I first saw Douglas Coupland's house, I thought it was built from a Super City set, as it looks so like yours! Or, to put it another way, yours looks just like a real house :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, I didn't know about that Swiss firm. I especially like the set with lots of different kinds of wood!