Peters Toys - Australian wooden dolls house furniture from the 1940s

 

While I was in Bathurst for the summer, I did some sorting of my dolls house miniatures. This set is one I bought last year, and it's a rarity among Australian-made dolls house furnishings: it has the brand name stamped on it, and I have been able to find the date the brand was registered, and the names of the makers!

The name is stamped on the back of the green dressing table:

Probably neither dressing table had a mirror originally - the mirror on the blue one is certainly not original, as it's the wrong shape and rather too thick.

It's plain and simply made furniture - not surprising, as it was made during World War II. The green table has what I believe is a wartime permit stamp on the base:

The name Peters Toys, toy manufacturers, was registered in September 1941 by Hazel M. and Frederick W. Meyer of 88 Milson Road, Cremorne, NSW. The entry states that they had commenced production on 1 April 1941.

Dun's Gazette for New South Wales, Vol 66 No 11 p 5 (12 Sep 1941) (accessed through trove.nla.gov.au)

This is the only entry I can find for Peters Toys or for the Meyers as toy manufacturers, so I don't know how long they continued.

Interestingly, I can't find the Meyers in Cremorne in the electoral rolls. In 1943, a couple named Frederick William and Hazel May Meyer are listed in St John's Park (where Frederick was a poultry farmer). In 1949, couples named Frederick William and Hazel May Meyer are listed in both Picnic Point (that Frederick is a bus driver) and Oatley (that Frederick is a metal machinist). Cremorne is on Sydney's lower North Shore, while the other suburbs are in the south or west of Sydney, 30 - 40 km away from Cremorne.

If anyone has any other pieces made by Peters Toys, whether dolls house furniture or other toys, I would love to hear about it.

H. G. Molteno, maker of Walther & Stevenson dolls house furniture

Eight years ago, I was excited to find my first dolls house furniture from the Sydney toy store Walther & Stevenson. I found more soon after that, and over the next couple of years found Walther & Stevenson catalogues showing the range available, and visited a fellow collector who owns more pieces. I published an article about the Walther & Stevenson dolls houses and dolls house furniture in the Dolls Houses Past & Present online magazine in 2015.

I think that I have now found the maker of this dolls house furniture! Searching digitised Australian newspapers on Trove for "dolls furniture", I came across a report in 1944, in several newspapers, about a government office adjusting the wholesale price of dolls house furniture made at home in Sydney by a Mr H G Molteno. Two papers included photos, and the furniture is recognisably Walther & Stevenson!

Compare the pieces in the photo above, from The Sun, Sydney, 18 May 1944, with Walther & Stevenson catalogue images which I have (rather clumsily) compiled below:

I haven't included a catalogue image of the stove (bottom right in the photo), as the catalogues don't show a stove of that design - but I do have one (photos of it can be seen towards the end of my Walther & Stevenson article).

The fullest report appeared in The Newcastle Sun, on the 18th May 1944, which wrote:

"BUREAUCRACY

AGED TOY MAKER GETS "THE WORKS"

SYDNEY— The Commonwealth Prices Branch has fixed prices for 79 articles of dolls' furniture, manufactured at home by Mr. H. G. Molteno, of Eastwood.

This achievement, Sir Frederick Stewart, MHR, said to-day, provided a fantastic example of bureaucracy run riot and of how interfering officialdom devotes time to unnecessary duties instead of matters of public importance.

Mr. Molteno first had to get approval of the Department of War Organisation of Industry to make dolls' furniture, though he had been doing so several years to occupy himself in his advancing age.

"He came to me about the delays and I wrote to the Minister (Mr. Dedman)," Sir Frederick said. 'The Minister communicated with the Minister for Trade and customs (Senator Keane).

"Mr. Molteno was instructed to submit a schedule to the Prices Commission setting out the list number and name of each article of furniture, the time and materials used for each article, the overhead cost, the value of the time and the cost selling price.

"He had to say whether a permit had been obtained from the War Organisation of Industry or Import Procurement or both, the date of issue of the permit, the makers of any similar articles and the prices at which they were sold.

Statutory Declaration

"This information had to be provided in the form of a witnessed statutory declaration and he had to give an estimate of his weekly output and provide a sample of each article, none of which measures more than a couple of inches.

"Letters from Mr. Molteno were ignored and for many months he was unable to make sales, though he and his wife were dependent on his work. At last, Senator Keane announced solemnly that the Commonwealth Prices Commissioner had been advised that the necessary investigation, 'although protracted' had been completed and Mr. Molteno was told by the Deputy Prices Commissioner in Sydney of the maximum price at which he might sell his productions.

"Perhaps it was these 'protracted investigations' that prevented the prices staff from looking into the matter of the Sydney milk supply," Sir Frederick Stewart said.

"Ridiculous Revisions"

He quoted these "ridiculous revisions" made in prices: A doll's ice chest, with hinged door, reduced from l0d to 7d, doll's verandah from 3 3/4d to 3 1/2d, a hallstand from 1s to 11 1/2d, a piano stool from 6d to 5 1/2d, an armchair from 5d to 3 1/2d, and a table from 5d to 4 1/2d.

"It is permissible to imagine the Commissioner and his staff having coopted a panel of joiners and carpenters, having communicated with the timber authorities in Canada, United States and Sweden, sitting hour after hour around a conference table debating solemnly whether a halfpenny or a farthing should come off the costs estimated by the maker."

 

I have not yet investigated archival depositories to see whether the documents submitted by Mr Molteno still exist. As well as the samples of each item, it would be very interesting to see the list of "makers of any similar articles and the prices at which they were sold".

 

Other newspapers carrying this report included the information that prices were reduced on 38 of the 79 articles of furniture made by Mr Molteno, including a "kitchen cabinet, with sliding doors and transparent panels, from 3/ to 2/6 (although it takes an hour to make)" (The Sun, Sydney, 18 May 1944); and "a grand piano with 11 separate pieces of wood to be cut and fitted, keys drawn and a considerable amount of finishing work done on it, the commission decided that the 3/6 sought was too much and that he should charge only 2/9." ( The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 May 1944: 4) This paper, and others, described Molteno as "an elderly man in poor health".

 

So who was H.G. Molteno? He appears in electoral rolls and directories as Herbert George Molteno. His trade is variously described as cabinetmaker, wood cutter, marquetry cutter and furniture maker. He was quoted in a newspaper report in 1914 of a commission into duties on imported goods:

 

Herbert George Molteno manufacturer of inlays, said that the present duty on imported inlays was 30 percent on those arriving from Great Britain and 33 per cent on those imported from elsewhere. He asked that the rates should be 60 and 70 per cent respectively. Inlays which he could manufacture and sell at £1 a dozen could be bought in England at 9 6 a dozen

The Chief Commissioner-Then a 60 percent duty would be no good to you

Witness-It would help me considerably, even if it did not bring the cost right up. Australian woods would be suitable for my purpose if I could get them the right thickness. Cutters of these inlays in England receive 4d or 5d an hour, with 1/ an hour for special work

Mr Lockyer-Then could any possible duty help you to compete?-Yes At present cabinet makers have to take stock designs and sizes. I could make any size, and my own designs to suit any particular style of furniture.” 

(The Argus, Melbourne, 25 April 1914, p17)

At that time, he was living in Melbourne, where he appeared in the electoral rolls from 1912 to 1924. A notice of his marriage in 1913 includes the information that he was "second son of the late F. J. Molteno of Ceylon" (Molteno ancestors and descendants are shown on a Molteno Family website). Herbert George Molteno was born on 26 December 1883 in Reigate, Surrey, England; his father was working as a photographer in London. I'm not sure when Herbert George left England for Australia (obviously before 1912).

 

By 1926, he appears in a Sydney directory, living first in Rockdale, then in Eastwood. His address from at least 1930 to 1937 was ‘Hauteville’, Gordon Crescent, Eastwood. From at least 1943 to 1963, he lived at 72 East Parade,Eastwood. This, then, was the address at which he made the dolls' furniture featured in the newspaper articles.

 

H. G. Molteno, as he appeared in the photo published in The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld.), 8 June 1944.

 

How long had he been making the furniture? The 1944 articles say "several years", so it's not clear whether he was the sole maker of the dolls house furniture shown in the Walther & Stevenson catalogues, or whether he took over the manufacture (and designs) of a previous maker. The earliest Walther & Stevenson catalogue I have seen dates from 1931, when 3 suites of approximately 10th scale furniture were available. By 1933, additional sets and individual pieces in a smaller scale were available, including several pieces of the furniture included in the 1944 photo. It seems to me likely that H. G. Molteno was producing this dolls house furniture by at least 1933, if not 1931. Some of the pieces were still available, in the same designs, in the 1953/54 Walther & Stevenson catalogue, so he probably produced it for at least 20 years. Molteno died in 1968.

If any descendants of Herbert George Molteno have any further information, I would love to hear from you!

Definitely shutters, if only I could show you!

So much has happened since I last posted about my dolls houses, I don't know where to start!

In early December, I went to a conference in Newcastle, in New South Wales, for work. As Christine Jaeger lives near Newcastle, that gave us a chance to meet - for the first time, though it certainly didn't feel like it! I had a wonderful evening looking at all her dolls houses, furnishings and dolls, and we persuaded her husband Max to take a photo of us - here we are standing in front of her Princess house:

At the conference, a friend mentioned that he would be driving from Sydney through Bathurst the following weekend, and he offered transport if I had anything to go to Bathurst. I didn't exactly - but I had been thinking about a dolls house listed on Gumtree, that was in Ashfield, in Sydney .... things worked out, and the Ashfield dolls house is now mine, and in Bathurst!

What hasn't worked out is the photos of the front of the house, which I know I took while I was in Bathurst in January. (Being a Gumtree listing, it has now disappeared from the interwebs.) The front of the house has a central porch, with a false front door (which doesn't open), and false windows which all have opening shutters. That is probably hard to imagine, but unfortunately, photos will have to wait until I am next in Bathurst.

UPDATE: The friend who collected the dolls house from Ashfield and delivered it to Bathurst also very cleverly saved a photo from Google's cache soon afterwards. Thank you! Here is a thumbnail of one of the photos in the Gumtree listing:

The photos I do have show the paint stripping I did to reveal the original colours. It is currently painted dark brown on the porch, shutters and roof, and the exterior walls are white. The roof was originally green, scored to simulate tiles:

 

 

This is the back of the roof, where I started the stripping. I'll probably have to repaint it green - or at least even out the scrape marks. In the top right of the photo, you can see the base of one of the two chimneys. The other chimney is on the back left of the house:

The walls were originally painted a lovely honey colour:

Inside, there are four rooms. The top two were painted pink and apricot - a bit of stripping shows that the pink room was originally apricot too:

Here you can see the top left room, with the doorway through into the top right room. All the rooms have skirting boards, architraves around the doorways, and picture rails. There's no evidence of any doors. The wood trim was originally dark brown, as you can see here:

(After I took this photo, and realised that the apricot paint goes over the white paint on the architrave, I removed a wee bit and found that it's painted over earlier apricot paint. So both upper rooms were originally painted apricot.)

Above the picture rail is a buff colour under the white:

Downstairs, both rooms are painted a greeny blue colour. I don't have a good photo of that - that also seems to have disappeared with the photos of the front of the house. You can just see a bit of the blue in this photo of the kitchen floor:

This is the only room with interesting flooring - textured paper of some kind, I think (which has been overpainted with white, and then had something stuck over that, by the looks of it).

The other floors seem just to have brown paper. At first I thought it had the kind of spatter and smear pattern that some lino tiles had in the 40s and 50s, but I think it is actually paint spatter, smeared by being wiped off, from when the roof was painted brown:

 You can see in this photo that the ground floor doorway is set further back than the upper doorway.

The white paint splashed messily on the wood trim, and spreading on to the walls, was presumably applied at some point when the walls were wallpapered. There were some remnants of paper which I have removed - none with any pattern remaining, just the back of some wallpaper. I also started removing the white paint from the walls - I will strip them back to apricot upstairs, and greeny blue downstairs, with brown wood trim and buff above the picture rail. I may find a similar paper for the kitchen, but will probably find rugs or carpet for the other rooms. Outside, I will strip it back to the lovely honey colour with a green roof and green trim on the windows, shutters and porch.

I'm so annoyed that I don't have a photo to show you of the front, as it's much the most interesting part of the dolls house! I don't know who made this house, or when. It does have some resemblances to the dolls houses shown in Walther & Stevenson catalogues - the line of the porch, and the style of the chimneys - but that may be coincidence. It is very well made, suggesting either a skilled home maker, or a commercially made house. The colours suggest the 1930s or 40s to me, but it could be from the 1950s, I suppose.

While I was in Bathurst, I also cleaned several houses by Bestoys, and another one by Woodtoys - I do have photos of them, and will show them in my next posts!

My buys at (and before) the Sydney Miniatures Fair 2014

I thought I'd take a photo of everything I acquired at the fair (and before) - and then realised as I was photographing them individually that I'd left out everything from one stand! So there's a little bit more than in this photo.

At last year's fair, I saw a magazine with an article about Dolly Mixture dolls houses. It wasn't by Marion Osborne, I'm pretty sure - it was by someone else who compared features of the various models known as "Dolly Mixtures" that they knew of. The magazine seemed a bit expensive - either $5 or $7, and my luggage was already overweight, so I didn't buy it. Stupidly, I didn't make a note of the magazine title or issue number, either! So this year I decided to look through the magazines offered at the fair, in the hope of finding it again. Of course, I didn't! I looked through magazines on at least 3 stalls, and bought quite a stack - including some I already have, as I didn't have my lists with me, and couldn't remember what I did and didn't have, but at least these were quite cheap - 1, 2 or 3 dollars, and only 50c for the small ones.

Before the fair, on the drive up to Bathurst, I stopped at Blackheath and did the rounds of the antiques gallery there. I didn't find lovely dolls house accessories like I did two years ago, but I did find some nice things, including a tapestry bag, with a brown background rather than the more usual black:

I intend to take this apart and use it for rugs, of course, which led my sister to comment on how upset I get when I see vintage and antique dolls houses changed! I pointed out that this is probably homemade, and has a couple of holes in it - but I wouldn't think much of those arguments applied to old dolls houses!! Double standards, I know ....

Also from Blackheath were two sets of miniature clogs, which will be furniture for a shoe house, and these three gorgeous miniature oil paintings:

They are signed A. Müller, 72. I will hang them in one of my 1970s or 80s houses. I don't want to keep the frames, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to find frames that fit, and are the kind I would like for these. I'm thinking I might try to cut off the curlicues (the frames are made in Hong Kong, and plastic, I think) to leave plain ovals, and then repaint them - or use the inner ovals as moulds.

So then, at the fair, soon after I arrived, Anna-Maria pointed out a stand which had good vintage miniatures. This was one I had bought items from both last year and the year before - Diana Simms' stall 'Diana's Gifts'. She had a box of Britain's lead pieces, and I bought several, mainly for my Walther & Stevenson farm (I haven't shown it yet, but you can see catalogue images here), and the roller and ladder for my Hobbies farmhouse:

I also bought a little Halfpenny girl, and a small bookcase or cabinet handpainted and signed (I think) SS in 1990:

 

I am not sure yet where the Halfpenny girl will live. The cabinet will probably go in a house by Armin Kod, which I haven't shown yet.

Diana had other vintage and some antique miniature dolls, too. Hers was about the only stall that had any vintage pieces - there were fewer than last year, when there were fewer than the year before ....

I am thinking that next year, I might try to do a display of one or two of my vintage dolls houses (from Bathurst; I don't plan to transport any but the smallest or lightest from Darwin to Sydney!) to increase awareness of the appeal of vintage. Of course, that can lead to more competition between collectors - but when fairs have no vintage dolls houses at all, and hardly any furnishings or dolls, it seems more a case of people just not being interested, or not realising their value. Anna-Maria bought a tub full of Europa and Jean furniture on the Sunday morning, from a stall which had had no vintage items at all displayed on Saturday. We think they probably had them to fill gaps as their main stock sold, rather than keeping the best for later .... She was very happy, though, as there were some great pieces in the tub (as well as quite a few that had been overpainted, probably to make the Jean and Europa match).

So, the rest of my buys are new, artisan-made miniatures. I bought more flowers, this time from Dianne Cottrell (I think she had the name Miniatures to Die For on her stand - not sure. You can see a picture of her stand, with two of the arrangements I bought, on Basketcase Miniatures blogpost.)

 A beautiful bunch of anemones:

 A gorgeous arrangement of blue irises and ranunculus (I think, although some look a bit like poppies? but she had some poppy arrangements too, with the characteristically kinked (and hairy) stems of poppies, so I don't think these are ...):

 And nasturtiums in a swan, which will go on the balcony of Swan House:

Diana packed these all so carefully, each in a separate container, with the vase stuck to the underside of the lid, and a plastic container or drinking cup placed over it.

I bought some food - yummy pizza and macaroons, from a stall with a sign saying $3 each, or 4 for $10 - but I don't know the name, as it wasn't prominently displayed!

 These will go in one of my contemporary houses - the Ikea, I think.

I visited the Miniature Supermarket again, and bought some modern groceries, again probably mostly for the Ikea house:

I discovered that Ann also has vintage groceries, although these are not yet shown on her website.

I was thinking of Diana's House when I bought these, but perhaps some of my other 1930s or 40s houses could use some of them - I don't think people living on a dairy farm would need powdered milk! I'm glad to find a source of period Australian groceries, and will contact Ann for a list of her vintage products.

I bought two more tea cosies by Win Garside (last year I bought a cottage cosy):

I think the koala cosy will go in my Hansa house - I'm not sure yet where the pedlar doll cosy will go.

Norma Bennet of Make Mine Mini was selling her own creations, and also Glenda Howell's hand-knotted rya rugs and hand woven mats. I bought several:

At the end of the fair, Norma offered me a reduced price on one of her sinks, the one I liked best, and I couldn't resist! I don't know where it will go, but I love the worn paint, the lining on the shelves, and the blue and white vintage French tea towels. Norma's photos are much better than mine, but here are mine anyway:

Norma was selling these with a dish drainer and some crockery, but as they alone cost $20, she kindly offered me the sink without them. I am sure I can find some plates in my stash, and perhaps a dish drainer too!

Right at the back of the photo of all my buys, at the beginning of this post, are a little kitchen cupboard and sink in bright yellow, red and blue plastic. These were a gift from Anna-Maria, who had received them as a gift herself (and was (perhaps?) feeling just slightly apologetic that she had had the good luck to buy the Europa stash ...)
I didn't know who had made them, but now I am thinking they might be Modella Mini pieces, as the sink seems to be identical to the one in diePuppenstubensammlerin's photo of a boxed Modella Mini Küche.

So, that's the fair for another year! Looking at other bloggers' photos of the fair, I see stands and displays I didn't notice when I was going round - too late to go back now, but perhaps some of the makers will be there next year too.

No more stripping done

Well, tomorrow I go to Sydney for a few days on my way back to Darwin. I've unpacked quite a lot of my sister's boxes in our real-life house - I didn't get any more paint stripping done on this dolls house, though. However, I had brought with me a couple of rugs I acquired on ebay, and another set of Walther & Stevenson dolls house furniture, so I had a play with furnishing the house.

I was delighted to spot a set of Walther & Stevenson dolls house furniture on UK ebay late last year - I wonder how it got to England from Sydney? In the set were some pieces I already had, and many I didn't, including the lounge suite and the radio shown in the photo above.

There was also a grandfather (or grandmother?) clock (missing the clock face) and a hall stand (missing the mirror) in the set from England. (The pink table here is made from lids from jars, nailed to a wooden cotton reel - it came with this house, but I forgot to photograph it last time.)

The blue kitchen set came with this house, too - these photos will help remind me what I have, and what I still need in this house. (I have bought another rug for this room, but it hasn't arrived yet.)

The most exciting part of the UK ebay lot was this Walther & Stevenson bathroom! I was absolutely delighted to get it, even though the toilet is missing a bit, and the boiler (chip heater?) doesn't have its shower head - I can probably make one from a bit of wire.

There was another bedroom set, too:

For some reason, all the mirrors in this lot are missing, so I shall have to try to find replacements ... The door of the larger wardrobe doesn't hang properly, either.

With the pink and blue bedroom sets which came with this house, I can now have three bedrooms.

I have added a few of the other pieces that came with this house - the rug in the bathroom, a cushion, pillows and mattress, a hairbrush, and two of the dolls. A lot of the other items that came with it are more recent, or, like the felt carpeting and a matchbox lounge suite, in poor condition. I may use some of the felt, and I'll keep the matchbox furniture, but now I have the Walther & Stevenson lounge suite, I will use that instead.

So I have lots more paint stripping to do on future visits to Bathurst! In the meantime, I'll be keeping an eye out for more rugs, and looking through my stash for bedding, dolls, kitchen accessories, etc.

Happy New Year!

Where did the last four months of 2013 go? I don't know - I guess I was busy at work, and I did get two online magazines out on Dolls Houses Past and Present, but my intentions to write more blog posts came to nothing.
I'm now on my summer holiday, and I'm staying with my sister in Bathurst, NSW. She moved here just before Christmas, to live in the house our mother left us. I've been helping her unpack boxes, especially boxes of books.
I've also started stripping paint from the wallpaper in the antique book-style house from Sydney, which I showed in May last year.

The wall on the left was covered with the same pink paint as the back wall. (The lower right corner is the last bit I did on that wall - it's darker because it's still a bit damp from the stripper.)

The stripped wallpaper has lost some of the colour and detail of the original papers in the rooms below, but looks much better than solid pink!

I also took off some of the paint from the floor of the room below, as I wanted to reveal more of the writing stamped on the wood:

I think it says Bruto 59, though I'm not sure about the last letter.

 

And just before I stopped, because the sun was moving round to the spot in the garden where I was working, I put some paint stripper on a corner of the roof. It removed the top layer of pink - I think there's another layer of red underneath the blue:

I don't know how much more stripping I'll get done while I'm here - I have another week, before I spend a few days in Sydney and then fly back to Darwin. I'm hoping I'll get this room finished, at least.

I also have four new dolls houses occupying my bedroom here, so I'm hoping to get a headstart on blogging and show them to you while I'm here! (Actually, there are five, counting a cardboard flatpack dolls house!)

I hope you have all had a happy Christmas, and wish you all a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead, with lots of dolls house fun!