Casas de Muñecas Antiguas

Who collects antique and vintage Spanish dolls houses? A query from a Dolls House Past and Present member about antique Spanish dolls house furniture got me thinking about this, and I started searching ebay.es and other websites. Just in one evening I found some lovely houses - and I would love to know more about old Spanish dolls houses and their makers.

This one, called Celi, is said to be made in Dénia in the 1950s.





This one is also said to date from the 50s:



while this one, in English Victorian style, is said to date from the 30s or 40s:



The ebay seller who has listed this boxed porcelain dinner set thinks that it was made in Dénia, although the box is unmarked:



The same seller is listing a boxed set of kitchen utensils, which were apparently made in Alicante in the 1940s:


Can anyone tell us more? Was Alicante, and particularly Dénia, a centre of dolls house manufacturing? Do any of my Spanish readers own antique or vintage dolls houses or dolls house furnishings (say, from the 1950s or before)? Or do you know of other collectors, or museums, who own some? Perhaps there is already a website showing them? I would love to discover more!

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 :-))