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.

Kitchen Table Scales

It's been a while since my last post - partly I was busy working on my part of an article about Keystone for Dolls Houses Past and Present, and partly I have been a bit down - having some ideas for posts, but not the energy to put them together. This weekend I decided that I would start decorating the inside of my Lines DH/D, even though I haven't finished scraping the outside. So I'll take photos of that in the next day or so, and meanwhile, here's one of my ideas!


Several of you have posted photos of your dolls house furniture in different scales. When I was putting together my dolls house study and the Super City mini-building, it occurred to me that it would be fun to stand pieces in different scales on top of each other.

These kitchen tables can also nest:


and by placing them next to each other and looking from above, you can see that the long end of the smaller table equals the short end of the bigger table!


The largest table is 1/10th scale, and is vintage German (from Oese). The next one is 1/12th scale, and is also vintage German - it came in my VERO Rügen, and I think it's Crailsheimer. The pale green soft plastic table is 1/16th - 1/18th - it says 'Made in England', and I think it's Kleeware. The next table is marked Kleeware - it's 1/24th scale, and hard plastic. Then there's a tiny 1/48th scale cream coloured plastic table, which I think is by the Ohio Art Company (or a copy of their furniture) - and the tiniest is 1/144 scale, from the Sylvanian Toys dolls house for their dolls house.

UPDATE: Oese wondered on flickr if the scale of the pink table might be 1/10th, and the wooden table larger still. It's a very sensible question - it's clear that the tables are different sizes, but as I didn't measure them or include a ruler in the photos, the actual size, and hence the scales, was not obvious. So, I've now measured them, and here are their actual dimensions and the dimensions they would be in 1:1 scale. (Only in metric so far - I have measured them in inches too, but multiplying inches is a bit more complicated, so one thing at a time!)

The wooden table is 15.4 cm long x 10.2 cm wide x 8.5 cm high.
In 1:10 scale, this makes it 1.54 m x 1.02 m x 85cm.

The pink table is 11 cm long x 8.3 cm wide x 6.7 cm high.
In 1:10 scale, that would be 1.1 m x 83 cm x 67 cm,
and in 1:12 scale, it would be 1.32 m x 99.6 cm x 80.4 cm.

The pale green table is 8.85 cm long x 5.8 cm wide x 4.7 cm high.
In 1:16 scale, that would be 1.41m x 92.8cm x 75.2 cm,
and in 1:18 scale, it would be 1.59m x 1.04m x 84.6 cm.

The white table is 5 cm long x 3.1 cm wide x 2.8 cm high.
In 1:24 scale, that would be 1.2m x 74.4 cm x 67.2 cm,
and in 1:30 scale, it would be 1.5m x 93 cm x 84 cm.

(I don't actually know if 1:30 scale exists for dolls house furniture, but I wanted to see what it would be in a smaller scale than 1:24.)

I don't actually have a real-life rectangular kitchen table, just a small round dining table and the built-in kitchen work benches. So I can't measure a 1:1 scale table! What do you think? I think I'd be happy with the wooden table in 1/10th scale and the pink one in 1/12th - but the pink one certainly could be 1/10th. Perhaps the wooden one could be 1/8th (1.23 m long x 81.6 cm wide x 68 cm high), but again, I'm not sure if there are many 1/8th scale dolls.

I'm not very strict about scale in my own dolls houses, and especially with vintage furniture from many different makers and old dolls houses, I tend to do what I do with clothes - try it and see if it fits, within a scale up or down. But that means knowing roughly what will be a good fit - so knowing about scales does have some use!

Macrame and Matchboxes

My new office space shares a floor with a resource library for teachers. I had a look along the shelves in a break from unpacking my boxes, and, amazingly, found a book called Miniature Macrame for Your Dollhouse!


I had been thinking that my 1970s dolls houses could use some tiny macrame objects, like plant holders:


or wall hangings:


(this is an owl),

or even a swinging chair:


which this tiny Erna Meyer doll seems to be finding a little precarious.

I've never made macrame, and don't really like it! but I do remember that lots of people had it in the 70s and 80s (this book was published in 1981). I can't imagine why this teacher resource library had a book about miniature macrame - I would have thought life-size macrame would be easier for kids to make, and produce gifts for their mums or dads.

I think this guide to making models from matchboxes and matches, also in this library, would have been borrowed more often:


This booklet is published by matchmakers Bryant & May (their matches are called Redheads in Australia, and (apparently) Beehive in New Zealand). As you can see from the cover, some of the models and techniques are quite sophisticated, but the book also includes instructions for making basic matchbox furniture:


as well as furniture made from matches:


I can't see a publication date, but the booklet refers to a 1989 Australian Standard for safety matches, so I'd guess that this dates from the 1990s. The furniture illustrated could have been made at any time in the last hundred years, though!