Who are we? We are Spejbl and Hurvínek!

I recently bought these dolls on Australian ebay from someone in Melbourne. I was rather taken with their expressions - rather sweet and wistful. There are two men, and two boys:

They all have big ears, big eyes, a prominent nose, and very little forehead. The men are bald, while the boys have a tuft of hair in the middle of their heads.

The men are wearing black suits made of a synthetic knit fabric - they have coats with long tails, and white pointed felt collars. Their hands are white, which probably indicates gloves. The boys are wearing blue shorts and white shirts made of the same type of synthetic knit fabric, with green felt braces.

The dolls themselves are made of wood, with the arms and legs joined to the body with wire:

The men are 5 1/2" (14 cm) tall, and the boys are just over 4 1/4" (about 11 cm).

I don't know who made these dolls, or who they represent. Recently, when I was browsing vintage doll listings, I saw some dolls representing cartoon characters, and I wondered if that's what these dolls might be. Do you recognise the characters? Or perhaps even know who made them?

Update: Gil Bomber of Cestina's Dolls Houses has identified these characters - thank you very much, Gil! She says:

"You have here two sets of the iconic Czech puppets Spejbl and Hurvínek (the former used to be known as Špejbl, with the first letter softened to a "sh" sound).

Here is a link to a website with some background information: http://mujweb.cz/spejblhurvinek/england/hist.html and you can find videos on youtube. (Here's a nice one:  

Where did you get them from Rebecca?   You don't often see them outside the Czech Republic.   I have the father but sadly not the son..."

 

Well, I bought them from an ebay seller in Melbourne. I will ask her if she knows anything about where they came from - I would think most likely from Czech migrants to Australia.

Nābytek by Chemoplast of Brno, Czechoslovakia

Well, this one was much harder to guess, as probably most of you, like me, will never have heard of this maker!

I've just looked up Nābytek on Google Translate, and it means Furniture in Czech. So that doesn't seem to be the brand name!

At one end of the box is more information, including the price, and also the name Chemoplast in Brno. (The line above that means 'higher authorities'.)

The other end of the box also says Chemoplast Brno, and has a logo in which the letters cp appear. The downstroke of the p seems to be a glass tube from a science laboratory.

So Chemoplast is the maker. They do seem to have copied the designs of Jean of West Germany's dolls house furniture - I'll have to see if I have any Jean pieces to compare with these.

The three words under Nābytek 'furniture' are bedroom, living room and dining room. The one shown in red is the one in the box.

They each have a different price, as you can see.

 

The living room is the most expensive, probably because it includes the grand piano with its opening lid.  The bedroom was only one koruna (crown) more than the dining room.

As the boxes state that the furniture was made in Czechoslovakia, they must predate 1993, when the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Czech Wikipedia tells me that Chemoplast was established in Brno in 1952. Plastic toys were one of their main products. They went into liquidation after 1989 (although they started again a few years later, I think). I don't know when exactly these sets were made - perhaps in the 1970s, or perhaps the 1980s. I wonder if they had a licence from Jean, or just copied the pieces?

Homemade Australian - ca 1970s yellow & red house, Darwin

This house, is, I think, the first I bought myself. When I moved to Darwin, I started frequenting the second hand shops here, and found this in one. I like it. It's pretty rough and ready - no stairs, and the little partition is flimsy, and just balances on the wooden support; the 'door' cut in this partition is really only big enough for the dog. But it's bright and cheery, and I like the beige vinyl flooring with the brown wildflower design.
It didn't really have furniture with it when I bought it - the shop assistant told me that she had collected all the dolls house furniture that was donated into a bag to sell with the house. I used some of it in the house for a while, but then refurnished it with furniture I bought on ebay. This furniture is made of natural varnished & red painted wood, and looks great in the house. Most pieces are not marked - one or two have a paper label saying 'foreign'. I bought some pieces in their original boxes, but even those don't give a maker's name or country! However, recently I've seen identical furniture listed on UK ebay by Marion Osborne and other sellers, and described as Tofa furniture, made in the former Czechoslovakia in the 60s and 70s.
The dolls are modern and German, and suit the house very well, I think. Again, their box doesn't name the maker! just the distributor, Dr. Rolf Ottmüller of Hamburg. I bought these dolls in 2003, at the Brighton Toy and Model Museum where my uncle is a volunteer, and where some of my grandmother's dolls houses are on display. The bathroom is soft plastic, marked Made in England.
This is another house I'm going to make bedding and cushions for!