Davidia Williams' Lempicka Studio Apartment, Paris ca 1930

I showed one photo of this house in my first post about the fair. It's such an amazing creation that it needs a post of its own to appreciate it, so here it is!

It's not exactly what most people would think of as a "studio apartment" these days - it has 3 storeys plus a penthouse studio and rooftop garden! It's built from the Dolls House Emporium Malibu Beach House kit.

Here is Tamara de Lempicka's story, as explained by Diva:

The entry:

Living room to the left of the entry, looking in from outside:

Inside:

The corner nook of the living room:

To the right of the entry, the dining room:

a card game is in progress ....

Upstairs, on the left is a well-appointed bar:

 On the right, the studio with the portrait of Madame Boucard:

Another flight of stairs:

to the bedroom on the left:

and the bathroom on the right:

Up again (I didn't manage to get a good photo of the landing and stairs here, I'm sorry), to the rooftop studio:

and a rooftop garden where you can relax with a drink:

Cheers!

You can see the two dolls houses Davidia exhibited at last year's fair in my post here. I didn't get to the fair in 2011, but Anna-Maria (The Shopping Sherpa) posted about Davidia's wonderful recreation of the 1950s Rose Seidler House on her blog. 

Diva's Houses: Waldfrieden and 1226 Cliff Drive

I had seen photos of Davidia Williams' creations, especially her Rose Seidler house, on The Shopping Sherpa's blog (and it was also written up in the Sydney Morning Herald, when it was displayed at the real Rose Seidler House).
This year she had two houses on display! One is an A-frame house, with this backstory:


Here's a view of the whole house:


furnished with lots of vintage pieces - Lundby, Tofa, Barton - as well as miniatures made by Diva. Isn't that a great spiral staircase? (Also a little scary, with no handrail!)


I love the crowded, lived-in look and feel.


Anna-Maria has much better photos in her post (taken while Diva was setting up, without the front which caught the flash. Also she's a better photographer than I am!).


While Waldfrieden is a 1960s house, 1226 Cliff Drive, Watsons Bay, is completely modern:



Here's a closeup of the backstory:


The front door:


And, as you can see, a very different colour scheme and vibe. The monochrome furnishings really let the artwork stand out:


Sorry this is out of focus - you probably can't see the Toblerone on top of the green crate:


More great artwork, and a lovely Mackintosh mantelpiece:


The stairs lead up to the bathroom (and I am obviously totally oldfashioned in liking railing or banisters on stairs - at least these stairs are against a wall!)


The bedroom, where the picture certainly makes me want to snuggle up in bed and keep warm:


Now I'm off to start photographing my finds!

Remember this?

Remember this modernist, 3 storey house which was offered twice on ebay UK, the year before last and last year? Oese also made a miniature version of it . (If anyone can remind me which blog or dolls house website we discussed the second sale on last year, please do! I know it's there somewhere ....)

Another house in this design was listed on ebay recently:


this time with a label:

"An O.D. Product
Made in Scotland"
around a drawing of a thistle.

(See redrickshaw on flickr for better photos of this house.)

Coincidentally, at about the same time, Rick posted a query on Dolls Houses Past and Present about another house with the same label - this one a more traditional two storey house with lattice windows, pitched tile roof, and entry porch on the right.

So I did a bit of sleuthing in the old British telephone directories*, and found an O.D. Construction, Woodworkers, at 2 Wellington st. Paisley (ph PAIsley 4533) from 1956 to 1958. (Paisley is in south-west Scotland, very close to Glasgow.)

In 1958 there is also a listing for O. D. Products, Toy Manufacturers, at 20 Blythswood st C2 (ie, Glasgow Central) (ph CENtral 5584). From 1959 to 1970, the only listing is for O. D. Products in Glasgow - O. D. Construction in Paisley doesn't continue after 1958, and O.D. Products is not listed in Glasgow after 1970.

So I suspect that they started in Paisley as general woodworkers, found their toys were very successful, set up in Glasgow as toy makers in 1958, and ceased the general woodworking business after that. The dolls houses with the O. D. Product label probably date to between 1958 and 1970.

Are there more designs out there? What other toys did they make, I wonder? And who was the genius who designed this 3 storey dolls house?

(They're online at Ancestry, which is subscription only, so I can't link to it.)

Some more that got away ...

I have just received a dolls house I bought on Australian ebay last year; it has been sitting, packed, at my sister's place since we picked it up in October, but for one reason and another, has only just made the long journey to Darwin. I'll post about it soon, but in the meantime, here are some that I would love to have in my collection.


I bid on this little Triang house today, and was outbid by $1! It's in HO (1:87) scale, and made for Triang model railways. It looks rather like the Triang 'Daisy' bungalow of 1969-71, I think - and would take up so little space!



This lovely 1920s homemade house was listed on Australian ebay in Sydney last week. The seller said that it was built by a returned soldier from WW1 during the 1920s, and was presented to a child at Easter 1930, with the date painted underneath.

From the outside, it looks like many Tudor-style houses made during that period.


It opens at the back with four small doors, and the roof also takes off:


Inside is what makes this house really special, parquetry flooring and wooden detailing done with superb workmanship.



It came with furniture, some of which might have been original. It looks very interesting - I would love to have been able to examine it!


Sadly, I was outbid on this one by one bid, in the final seconds of the auction. I hope it has gone to an appreciative home!

This house is one I didn't bid on, but would have if I'd been able to afford the freight. It is also a homemade Australian house, this time from South Australia. From the outside, it doesn't look like much:


and the inside is not very exciting architecturally either:


What I really loved was the original 1970s wallpaper and carpet!

The carpet in the bedrooms looks exactly like the carpet in my mother's living room!



Isn't the wallpaper and carpet in the living-room groovy?


And so are the wallpapers in the bathroom and kitchen. The flooring here reminds me of my mum's place too!



And I don't recognise the furniture - perhaps it's also handmade?

While I'm posting photos that other people took, of houses I don't own, here's another house that attracted my attention, which I would love to see. It was listed in Queensland as pick-up only - I often ask the seller if they would pack a house for pickup by a courier, but in this case I think I was actually being sensible about how much space I have in the house I live in, and decided not to enquire.


This is not typical architecture for Queensland, where many houses are built on stilts for safety from floodwaters, and most have verandahs and louvre windows to give relief from the tropical heat.



It looks homemade to me, perhaps in the 1930s? And look at the detail - the wonderful wooden flooring, and all the built-in furniture inside - and crazy paving and a compass outside!



Sometimes I wish I had an unlimited budget* and unlimited space, but (1) that's not the case! and (2) I suspect that could get a bit boring. So it's good to have a virtual collection, as well as a real one!


* Did you know that Barbra Streisand collects dolls' houses? I discovered this by searching Google images for Silber and Fleming!