The Iberian Connection

Some bloggers are very good about welcoming each new follower individually. Although I don't do that, I'm very grateful to all my followers, readers and those who find me through google and comment on the post that interests them. I'm delighted to see that I now have 88 followers - thank you all very much!



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?

Photo by Florine

Here is Papa Hogarin on El cuarte de juguete's blog:

Photo by El Cuartin de juguete

Callsmall has found some wonderful fold-up dolls houses, and posted about one by Winthrop Toys in April:

Photo by Callsmall

From El Cuartin's blog, I learned that the same house was made in Spain by Daypa:

Photo by El Cuartin de juguete

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:

Photo by Oese

Architoys discovered that Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland created an installation called "Super City" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2005:

Photo from Architoys blog

Apparently, the Super City set was released by Ideal in 1967, and withdrawn a year later!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:

Photo by architoys

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 :-))

A little fantasy .....

I saw this roombox on German ebay, and was very taken with it. The contrast of the vines on the pillars and the strong colours of the rooms suggests to me that we may be in an imaginary world, so here we have offices - of a witch, who sells love potions, and of a private detective!

The witch's customer is the governess from the Californian bungalow-style house. I don't know who she is hoping to entice with help from the witch:


The witch has her familiar on her shoulder, and a cauldron handy to brew up potions, as well as several jugs of ready-prepared potions. Her furniture came with the roombox - as she is a purveyor of love potions, among other things, the heart decorations suit her very well!

The private detective has two customers who have lost a daughter, and are prostrate with grief. He is taking details of the case, and has a compass and penknife ready to help in his search.


On the wall hangs a portrait of a former, very grateful, client.

As the private detective sees his customers off, he is grim-faced but determined:


His size and determination give them hope.

The detective is very proud of his office furniture, so he has turned his desk around to display it:


This furniture is ingeniously made of cardboard; the cupboard doors slide open. This is the box for the furniture, very battered and a bit mouldy:


Hapa Puppenmöbel, Neuheit!! (Hapa Dolls' Furniture, Novelty! I have found a reference to a firm called Hapa, based in Bavaria, which now makes roller shutters and plastic windows, but I don't know whether this is the same firm.)

This is not the original furniture for this room; it originally contained a bed, bedside tables, sofa and handtowel holder:


- all handmade from pine wood and cigar boxes.


The roombox also is clearly handmade, also from pine, and handpainted inside and out. Here's a detail of the blue room:


The curtains in both rooms are original; this one also had lace, but it did not fit the detective's very functional, no frills image! So I have put it away with the furniture.

The witch's room had wallpaper over the paintwork when I received it. It is (or was) rather lovely wallpaper, and I now believe quite early - 1920s or 30s.


It was stained and peeling, and I could see the painted wall decoration underneath, so I removed the wallpaper to reveal it:


It seems that some little girl (perhaps even the first) who owned this roombox did not like the almost overpowering colour scheme here - red, black and gold! I've seen seen similar colouring in 1920s wallpaper sample books on ebay - here are a couple I downloaded:



The adult who decorated this roombox seems to have been very up-to-date, but the little girl who played with it preferred a light, soft and flowery setting for her dolls.

The outside of the roombox is also heavily decorated:


As you can see, the wood is splitting. I think this may have been a problem for some time, and that the metal braces at the corner of each window were put there to hold it together. There's no evidence that the windows ever had glass.