German (VERO?) Bungalow Kitchen

In my last post, I showed the façade of this bungalow:


So now, let's have a look inside. The patio has two comfortable chairs to relax on,


and the swinging doors lead in to the kitchen


All the furnishings here came with the house - and so did the dog. I think the people who live here must be busy unpacking in the living room, and looking forward to sitting down and enjoying this meal!
I really liked the flooring here when I saw it in the auction listing - it turns out that it has been added by a previous (original?) owner. I'm definitely keeping it, as it goes so well with the house and furnishings, and seems very 60s to me! (Not groovy 60s, but everyday 60s.)

Unlike my other German bungalow, this one has no maker's mark. I think it's also by VERO, not just because the components and construction methods are similar, but also because I found this house on the Puppenhausmuseum site:


It's labelled "Vorstadthaus mit Kamin" (suburban house with chimney) Vero, DDR, ca 1965-1970. As you can see, the swinging doors are identical, and there are other similarities too.

Cleaning day at the Praegers'

Mr and Mrs Praeger are cleaning.


Michael Praeger has finished sweeping the patio, and is about to start cleaning the windows - a big job. I hope there's enough Windex left. (It doesn't look like anyone has swept inside yet, though!)


Dianne Praeger is thrifty, and keeps old underpants to use as cleaning rags.
Dianne is dusting and polishing the furniture. She does also have purpose-made dusters, and uses modern Betterwear Super Lavender Wax Polish, sold door-to-door by the Betterware representative, who calls regularly.



(No product placement fees were received for this blog post.)

VERO (DDR) 1960s bungalow

I have had this house for just over a year, but have only just put it together. It came in its original box, with an instructional diagram:


"Zerlegbar" means it can be taken apart. Of course, it has to be put together before it can be taken apart. The box also says 'Absolut Standfestigkeit durch Schraubverbindung" - roughly: 'complete stability due to screw fastening'. I don't know about that - I think you need to be an octopus with hands and eyes on each tentacle to screw this together. I managed, but I have to admit that the plugs into which I was supposed to be screwing the screws came out of the holes in the walls and became firmly attached to the screws, so in effect my house has metal plug joints. Oh well - here it is:


Definitely worth trying to be an octopus.

(The box also says 'Washable surfaces'. I agree about the roof and floor, but I'm not sure about the wallpaper or the artificial grass.)

Until this weekend, I thought this house dated to the 1950s. I think that's what the auction on German ebay said, and it looked like it to me. However, I was looking through the Puppenhausmuseum website trying to identify the furniture, and found a similar, though two-storey house, with an identical box, dated to 1968-70:


This house has a name - Seeblick, 'Seaview', unlike the bungalow. But they have many identical features, and were most likely made at the same period.

The Puppenhausmuseum site is a wonderful source of information (as well as being very enjoyable to look through). Another page gives some information about VERO, describing a house as made by "Moritz Gottschalk innerhalb von VERO (Vereinigte Olbernauer Spielwarenfabriken VEB" - 'Maurice Gottschalk within VERO (United Toy Factories of Olbernhau POI [People's Own Industry])'. So VERO stands for Vereinigte Olbernhauer.
Olbernhau is in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) region of Germany, in what used to be East Germany, close to the Czech border. This is an area well known for its wooden toys. I found some more information about VERO on German Wikipedia, which lists the companies that at different times formed part of VERO (including a wax flower factory, construction toy firms and a musical toy firm, although Gottschalk is not mentioned). It seems that VERO was founded in 1966, although of course many of the firms which combined to form VERO were operating long before this.


So, back to my house. There are only two rooms, which I have furnished as a bedroom:


and a living room:


The red and yellow chairs, the fireplace, and the two little three-legged stools in the bedroom came with the house. So did several pieces of country-style wooden furniture painted with hearts and flowers, which I think may also be made by VERO. Also, there were seven little plastic and rubber people (mostly Ari), whom I have callously dispossessed. Two of my Erna Meyer dolls now live here.

All the other furniture is German, but bought separately from the house.


(I apologise for the flash in these photos. This house stands under the table which holds the Bodo Hennig Bodensee, and doesn't get much natural light.)

I was lucky enough to find the bedroom furniture with its original box, and with the bedding (though whether that is original or made by a former owner, I'm not sure). The box is lovely,


but very uninformative, unless the numbers stamped on the side mean something to somebody:


So I have no idea who made this beautiful furniture.

The living room furniture, apart from the two red and yellow chairs, also came as a set (including the clock and plant stand with pots), but without a box, so again, I don't know the maker.


The tea set I bought on US ebay; most of the ornaments are costume jewellery brooches bought on various ebays.

The glass doors in each room slide open to a long patio:


One end is roofed, and has a bed of flowers:


Here's a view through the open living room sliding glass doors:


(These poor dolls are rather faded on their fronts, but still lovely.)

As well as a chess table and one chair (from Sweden), there is also a swing seat on the patio - what in German is known as a "Hollywood swing":


As you can see, along the top of the glass doors and at each end the house is faced with wood veneer:

The VERO mark appears on this end:


(And clearly, 'Made in Germany' does not always indicate that the item so marked dates from before WWII, as is sometimes thought. This house definitely post-dates the division of Germany, but does not state which Germany it comes from on the house or box.)

There is also a (torn) paper label on the side of the box, which no doubt gives information about the production run:


Now a couple of PSs -
PS 1. - The box for the house has some writing on it. The writing on the side is clear:


"Präger Verkauft". Now, my German-English dictionary, and an online one I found, both say that Präger means 'coiner'. However, I suspect that it means 'lay-by' here (or, as I believe they say in the US, 'lay-away') - in other words, a deposit has been paid and the balance will be paid. Perhaps a German reader could let me know?
- Oese has suggested that this is probably the name of the person who bought it - thank you Oese!
So, 'Präger, Sold' - and the top of the box tells us:


As part of this writing was eaten away, I played around with the image, and I think it says "Präger bis Mittwoch" - 'Präger till Wednesday'. So the house was probably first owned by a family called Präger - so I will call my Erna Meyer couple Mr & Mrs Präger (or Praeger in English).

Ps 2. I bought another set of living room furniture, never removed from its box:


The chairs are very similar, but have metal legs, so this set is probably by a different manufacturer. It has more information on the box, with the name Keller on the lid:


and a label on the side, with the name Dregeno and an image of a leaping deer in front of a pine tree, as well as the recommended retail price of 9.20 DM (presumably?):


There is also a name, D. Mansfeld, stamped under the box, which I imagine could be the name of the seller / shop, or possibly the person who checked the contents (although they would more likely have a number or initials, I would have thought):


I haven't heard of either Keller or Dregeno before, and know nothing about them. I have been tempted to remove the furniture - I love the newspaper holder! - but for a house this small, it's not worth it.

PS 3. I bought this house on German ebay from another seller who went to some trouble to send this to me, with the usual story of incorrect quotes, and then 'oh dear, sorry, too big for the mail'. When this happens, I am happy to pay more to actually get the house (I don't see why the seller should have to pay the extra when the post office has misquoted - it's happened several times, in several different countries - just one of those things when buying a large item). I really appreciate sellers who take some effort to find a means of shipping the house I've bought. So, thank you, Limpeter!

Seen on ebay: 1960s Ideal dolls' house & ?70s Vero

I'm hoping to have time over the weekend to clean and photograph another dolls' house or two. I've been spending a bit of time this week looking for furnishings for my Kaleidoscope house, getting inspiration from other bloggers' sites, and looking at modern dolls' house furniture makers' websites as well as ebay. I'm particularly looking for kitchen, bathroom and living room furniture - the latter because I doubt I'll find (and win) a Kaleidoscope lounge suite, and the others because I'd like a bit more detail than the originals have.
I came across these dolls' houses on ebay:


This was on German ebay, and it's a Vero Erika house.

I've seen pictures of other Vero houses from the 60s (bottom of page) and 70s on a virtual museum of German dolls' houses, and on The Shopping Sherpa's blog, and I actually have a Vero bungalow, which I must set up (first, I have get more shelves put up, so I have somewhere to put all these houses!).
This one I hadn't seen before. It's furnished with a mishmash of styles, but what caught my eye was the simple design, and the very groovy floor patterns:

Top right:

Top left:

Bottom right:

Bottom left (unfortunately you can't see much of the floor):

and the balcony:

I would love to furnish this house! but the seller was not posting it out of Germany.

Another one, with very similar design, was also listed on German ebay:
Not such groovy floors, but a great staircase.

UPDATE: Karin Wester has very kindly identified this house as one made in the Netherlands by OKWA. Diepuppenstubensammlerin has one too.

On US ebay, I saw this house, a folding cardboard house which the seller stated was made by Ideal in 1963 (I'm not sure which Ideal, and now I wish I'd asked for a photo of the maker's name):


I would have bid for it (cardboard is surely lighter than wood or metal, for shipping), but the dimensions exceeded those accepted by the USPS.

This is the living room (with extra patio furniture):


and a bedroom with team pennants on the wall:


The kitchen:
It looks like a few pieces are missing, but still, it's a nice mix of early 1960s pastels, with some orange creeping in to the living room. And so easy to store!