The Rosetta Stone Award

The Rosetta Stone Award was created by a committee of My Realitty's dolls in March this year. One doll from each house attended the board meeting, and, after other business, announced the inaugural Rosetta Stone Award, which is given to a dollhouse blogger who has contributed greatly to the information of dollhouse history. The inhabitants of the dolls houses explained that "though these houses started as toys and may have led a perilous life, once they are in the harbor of the collector they have a story to tell. This award is to acknowledge the sleuthing it takes to discover that story."

This award is issued to only one person, must be kept for 6 months then passed on to another worthy recipient.

I was very honoured to be the first recipient of the award. I think the dolls are probably less impressed with my timeliness in passing it on. Although my dolls decided who to award it to next in plenty of time, I have been very tardy in making the announcement. My apologies.


Valerie Smith has been nominated by the inhabitants of my dolls houses as their representative, and is very happy to present the Rosetta Stone Award to:


Diepuppenstubensammlerin!

Valerie would like to thank diepuppenstubensammlerin for her assistance in identifying the designer of her kitchen table and chairs (Bodo Hennig), as well as the original designer from which her kitchen cabinets were copied (probably Modella; this is a more affordable copy by Blue Box). Many vintage photos of Valerie's family, the descendants of Erna Meyer, have also been located thanks to diepuppenstubensammlerin - and other families, such as the Cacos and Hückels, have also benefited from this service. Valerie Smith also recommends a visit to diepuppenstubensammlerin's online photo albums - Valerie says she loves looking through them!

The Rosetta Stone Award

Recently I was presented with the Rosetta Stone Award by My Realitty's dolls. I am very honoured - especially as the award was just created by CM and her dolls, so I am the very first recipient (and it's quite exciting to know someone who created a blog award!).


The Rosetta Stone Award, I am informed, is a serious award for scholarship on the history of dollhouses. The dolls said,

This is the first "Rosetta Stone Award". It is given to a dollhouse blogger who has contributed greatly to the information of dollhouse history.

As we all know dollhouses were originally the hobby of rich women or tools to teach girl children to keep house.

Today women all over the world are interested in them. Note the number of bloggers and that Dollhouse blogs are a world unto themselves. Though these houses started as toys and may have led a perilous life, once they are in the harbor of the collector they have a story to tell. This award is to acknowledge the sleuthing it takes to discover that story.

Furthermore this award is issued to only one person, must be kept for 6 months then passed on to another worthy recipient. There are many worthy of this award... ... and this year we are bestowing it on... Rebecca of Rebecca's Collections for her serious and valuable work on English dollhouses.

Thank you very much, CM and your dolls! I appreciate it very much - especially as I completely agree that there are many worthy of the award, and I know that the research I do follows on from the work that others have done.

As some of you know, I love family history research. Researching my own family can be particularly moving, but I also love the thrill of the hunt, when one clue leads on to another - or when you get a bit stuck, and try to think of other ways to approach the problem. I started researching dolls house firms when an article on dolls houses made or sold by the firm C. E. Turnbull was published in the first issue of the Dolls Houses Past and Present online magazine. The author stated that not much was known about the firm, not even an address.

Well, that was a challenge I couldn't resist - and quite an easy one to solve, as this London-based firm existed from the late 19th to the early 20th century, a time for which the UK censuses are available to search online.

So that got me started - and now Florine of My Vintage Dollhouses and other treasures and I are researching the history of dolls houses made by Keystone of Boston, Massachusetts!

I thought about how to celebrate this award - and I decided to make a scene rather like the room where I do my research. I've borrowed the downstairs living room of the Bodensee and filled it with books (borrowed from many other houses too), on bookcases squeezed in everywhere they can fit, with dolls houses on shelves, trolleys, the floor ... and Linda Kimber is modelling me doing research (or possibly browsing ebay ;-) ) on the computer!

I put this scene together, and photographed it - and then thought, but where are the boxes? Because my study has lots of boxes in it - boxes of dolls house furniture I've just received, boxes of stored dolls house furniture, the original boxes for dolls houses and sets of furniture .... So I added some boxes!

It looks like my sister's cats have come to visit, as mine are both black. But they do like to sit with me when I'm working on the computer :-)

Thanks again, CM and your dolls!

A Sunshine Award

Recently, I have received the Sunshine Award from Florine at My Vintage Dollhouses and Other Treasures, and from Carol at My Realitty. Thank you both!


I am supposed to pass it on to 6 other bloggers who bring sunshine to my life. Well, you know I'm not very good at sticking to rules!
The other day in the library at my new office, I found a book called The Australian Home Beautiful, which has lots and lots of photos from the magazine of the same name. Wow! My eyes certainly lit up when I saw the book - so many genuine, contemporary photos of homes and furnishings in Australia over the last 80 years. So, instead of just passing this award on (though you're very welcome to take it - it's a lovely flower!) I've chosen a photo for each of 6 new bloggers and 6 old friends.
I hope you will like the sunshine and flowers I've chosen for you!


For Louise of Grandma's Attic - Toys and Treasures, flowers in a dining room of 1930:


For Oese of Raum für Raum, flowers and a sun-like mirror in a 1936 living/dining room:


For Florine of My Vintage Dollhouses and Other Treasures (who said we can't give an award back to the person we received it from?!?), a sunny 1930s bathroom:


For Amy, of Amy's Miniatures and Smalls, an advertisment from the 1940s, because it was her husband who gave her her Lundby house for Christmas:


(But I think her husband is not hamfisted like this one: the ad ends: "You can be sure it's a Pyrex household!")

For Troy of Tulsa Tiny Stuff, flowers over a 1942 fireplace:


For Daniel of www.danielagnew.com, a wartime (1940s) bedroom with a doll and a stuffed dog:


For Helene of Pubdolls, flowers over a fireplace as dreamed of by stylists during WW2:


For Carol, of My Realitty, a car for a lady driver of 1950! (Wonder what Colette would think of the matching car, hairdo and outfit?)


For Pandora, of SmallStuff Miniatures, a yellow sink from the 1950s! I've sometimes wondered about the brightly coloured plastic and metal dolls house kitchen appliances - well, it seems that you really could get a sink in Primrose Yellow, blue, pink, aqua, green, etc! I don't remember ever seeing one - I wonder if they weren't very popular, or didn't last long - or were just seen as very dated by the 60s and 70s, and replaced as soon as possible?


For Nicola of Püppilottchen's Toy Blog, a lifesize 1970s flowery sofa and chairs, just like her dolls'!

For Diepuppenstubensammlerin, who shares my love of Erna Meyer dolls and shares her amazing info about German makers like Erna Meyer, Bodo Hennig and VERO, flowers in a 1970s bathroom!

For The Shopping Sherpa, who, as well as her blog, has just taken on managing Dolls Houses Past and Present, some sunny cushions in a bedroom she might like:


Thank you all, and all the other blogs I read and follow, for brightening my life :-)

Awards

I have received two awards recently which I haven't acknowledged yet: thank you to Doll Mum for this award:

(This blog is a dream!)

And thank you to Susan of Susan's Mini Homes for the Kreativ Blogger Award:


Both these awards came with rules for passing them on. I'm afraid I'm not very good at following rules! Instead, I am going to combine these with another kind of award I received from Sans many moons ago. Sans passed on a Reader's Award by choosing some readers of her blog, and scanning for them a book she associated with them. This is the one she chose for me:


A scene from Hansel and Gretel, as the infants class in my Erna Meyer school were reading it (it's also on the television in my Bodensee house).

As I love reading - blogs as well as novels and many other things - this is the kind of award that I love. So, for bloggers I am inspired by, and who have supported my blogging, here are some books I love which connect to things I enjoy about your blogs.


For The Shopping Sherpa, whose blog - including her Parade of Houses - inspired me to start blogging - here is a black and white book of plans for a mid-century modern (dismantleable) dolls' house.
Her collection has just been filmed by the Australian ABC TV program Collectors, so it will be on national television soon!













For Pubdoll, whose play on words in both English and Norwegian I love, as well as her sense of style, here is The Shield Ring, by English writer Rosemary Sutcliff. I think Annika Lund, who has the whole 'Little House on the Prairie' series, might also enjoy reading this story about 7 year old Bjorn, who lived at Buthars Mere in what is now the Lake District of England, in the late 11th century.













For Oese of Raum für Raum, I had to put two! Her scenes often have art books and travel books, and I think the dolls who read them, when they are home, would enjoy reading about where I live.
The other book, Through the Dolls' House Door by Jane Gardam, is a story about a dolls' house which has a dolls' house inside it. One of the children who play with it wanted to have a dolls' house in the dolls' house dolls' house too, and another one in that! But the other child said, "No. Stop. We'll get dizzy."






Mini Modern and Call of the Small have both inspired me greatly with the scenes in their Kaleidoscope houses, as well as other modern dolls houses they have. I haven't blogged about my Kaleidoscope house yet, but one day I will ... So for them, here are some genuine vintage Australian advertisements, from Fragments of the Everyday - A Book of Australian Ephemera: a 1938 ad for Grace Bros Department Store furniture, a 1954 ad for Dulux paint for Colourful Homes, and a ca 1965 ad for a Waltons Department Store sale - where the special item is the New American Action Sleeper/Lounge!




Sadly, Mini Modern has stopped blogging for now, but the archive of her two years of posting still has wonderful photos, informative and fun text, and a creative use of pieces from diverse sources. She keeps (jokingly) threatening to steal my Bodensee dolls house - now she's not blogging, I won't know where she is anymore, so I won't be able to keep tabs on her ;^)




Call of the Small is still blogging, and still buying wonderful modern dolls houses - she says her latest purchase, a wonderful 1950s Vero house from German ebay - may be my fault, as she loved my Vero bungalow, also bought from German ebay, so much! Amazing how many of us were watching the auction of the house CallSmall bought! I love it when fellow bloggers buy dolls houses I've also been watching (but not bidding on!!) on ebay, as then I can enjoy them too, as they furnish and photograph them.










Sarah Boirin of Vintage Dolls Houses lives in France and has a great collection of vintage Triang houses, among others. She is very knowledgeable about dolls house furniture, too, and has some wonderful pieces. So for her, here is the Exceptional Cat expressing an opinion on furniture styles, from Advanced French for Exceptional Cats, by Henri de la Barbe.










Nicola at Püppilottchens Spielzeug-blog first blogged about the Käthe Kruse dolls she loves, and now also about her dolls houses, including Lundby and a lovely Albin Schönherr house. She also likes vintage children's books, so I hope she will enjoy the ones I have chosen for other bloggers.
For Nicola, I have chosen a book published this year by Australian writer Cassandra Golds, The Museum of Mary Child. Heloise, the little girl in the book, was not allowed to play, and longed for a doll. One day she finds one under a floorboard, and loves her dearly. Later, she runs away from her home where love and play are not permitted, and finds herself living with a choir of young female orphans, who also make clothes for dolls.









Redrickshaw had a blog, but now posts only on flickr. She creates marvellous scenes and stories with her Grecon dolls and vintage dolls houses, and also loves vintage children's books and Chinese dolls. So for her, here are Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, two Japanese dolls who have a book of their own by Rumer Godden, but here appear in the 1966 edition of Little Plum, illustrated by Jean Primrose. They have put on clogs to come out and admire the snow. They walk up and down along the wall, leaving footprints smaller than a bird's.











Doll Mum has started blogging recently about her dolls and dolls houses, as well as her daughters' dolls. I especially love the stories she tells about how the dolls came in to her life. The dolls and the clothes she and her Nanna made for them bring back many memories of my beloved dolls and the clothes my Nana made for them!
This book was a favourite of mine when I was very young. Galldora is a homemade rag doll who has many adventures when her owner loses her (as she does frequently!).












Also very new bloggers are Florine of My Vintage Dollhouses and Other Treasures, and Louise of Grandmas Attic - Toys and Treasures. I'm enjoying seeing their posts about their vintage American dolls houses (though that's not all they have) - seeing the vintage American furniture in houses occupied by dolls I can appreciate it much more than in guides to dolls house furniture makers!














So here, for Florine and Louise, are Across the Rolling River, a story about Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother. I was excited to realise that my Californian great-grandmother's maternal ancestors were probably travelling through the same states at the same time as this family!
And also Stars of Fortune, a book written and illustrated by English writer Cynthia Harnett, which tells the story of the Washington children of Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire, when the future Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned nearby.









Please feel free to pass on a Reader's Award to your readers!
I read many other blogs too, and appreciate receiving comments from my other followers and readers. I find so much support in this network of bloggers about dolls houses and miniatures, so thank you all, even if I have not named you individually here!

Thank you and welcome

I was honoured recently to receive a blog award from Lizzie, who has two blogs herself - The Washerwoman: the rural ramblings of a vintage textile and clothing enthusiast, which has occasional dolls house posts:


Lizzie has also recently started another blog, The Dolls House Diaries, where I'm looking forward to seeing more of her collection:


(I've also bought from Lizzie and her husband on ebay - the floor papers in my Triang 52 came from them.)

Thank you and welcome also to my new followers - it seems that almost every time I visit my blog, I see a new photo among the followers. I hope you are enjoying my older posts - there will be more soon when I find the time!

Several of my new followers have also started blogs about their vintage dolls house collections. DollMum blogs about dolls, dolls houses, sewing and knitting:


Grandmas Attic - Toys and Treasures is a new blog by a Californian dolls house collector, who has vintage English houses, a Brazilian house, and of course great vintage American dolls houses in her collection, including this terrific Arcade laundry:



Florine also has a great collection of vintage American dolls houses on her blog My Vintage Dollhouses and Other Treasures. She has furnished this Rich Toys dolls house with vintage Kage furniture - I love the dressing table and stool in the bedroom:


Susan has a very varied collection, like mine! This was her first house, bought from a thrift shop (or, as we say in Australia, an op shop)


- she is now "doing her best to save the planet by gathering all unwanted dollhouses into her living room so that they will be kept out of landfill sites and other garbage dumps." (Sound familiar?)
She has a nice sense of humour, too:


Such riches to explore - some very familiar dolls houses - and it's great to see how individually each person has furnished them - and some that are new to me. All these blogs are new, so I've been able to read each post in them. I've also enjoyed dipping into other followers' blogs - it's great being part of a growing network of dolls house bloggers!