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. 

My Buys at the Fair, 2013

The first day of the fair, I looked at stalls but didn't buy anything. I did note that several stalls had bargain boxes, and I headed back to them the second day. The woman I had bought most vintage pieces from last year was not there this year, but there were some vintage items on a few stalls.

A woman named Joanne was selling her mother's collection, including the boxed Barrett's aquarium (she threw the empty toaster box in for free). Joanne also has a couple of boxes of 60s and 70s dolls house furnishings, from her mother, which I hope she will email me and Anna-Maria about when she's ready to sell them. The Jean roll-top desk was on another stall.

I loved the Scot Tissue toilet rolls in pastel wrapping paper - I remember similar wrapping from when I was a child. (I may even have some in a scrap book still - I remember pasting a piece in, as I thought the colour and design was beautiful!!!)

The little doll was on Diana Simms' stall, Diana's Gifts, where I found some vintage pieces last year too. She also had my best find of the fair, another doll:

 

All she could tell me about the doll was that it was from an old dolls house. Does anyone recognise her? She has a wooden head with painted features, metal hands and feet, and her legs and arms are made of plastic coated wire.  I like her expression, and her clothing! I don't know yet where she will live ...

The cutlery and jars of preserves shown on this table were also from Joanne. (The table itself is not from the fair.) I was delighted to buy an African violet in a pot - my grandmother kept a row of them on her bathroom windowsill. I have to admit I have forgotten who I bought it from, though!

The wonderful tea cosy was made by Win Garside, of Baulkham Hills (NSW). She also had Paddington Bear tea cosies, cosies with bees on them, rabbit-shaped cosies - it was quite hard to choose!

The wire mesh food and cake protectors were, I think, made by the woman from Victorian Dollhouses and Miniatures, from the ACT. She also had tiny boxes of Coats crochet cotton which she had made, handwinding the rolls of cotton.  I took a card so that I could look online, but their website features mainly their dolls houses and dolls house components. From that stall, I also bought some sheets of wallpaper - 3 embossed designs, and one that could be used for flooring or 50s/60s textured wallpaper:

3 more artisan-made pieces: a tiny knitted vest by Helen Palenski from New Zealand (Anna-Maria bought a tiny 1/48th scale tea cosy and a knitted 12th scale sock monkey of Helen's); a cloth doll by Marilyn Halcomb; and a beaded cover for a milk jug by Faery Fantasys:

More bargain buys, between 50c and $2:

I've included the cutlery here again, as it was only 50c! Joanne said she thought it looked rather crudely made, and it certainly is larger than 12th scale, as many dolls house items for children to play with were ...  

The little dolls (Liddle Kiddles?) could do with a wash, so I might experiment with using denture tablets to clean them, before I try on more valuable dolls (the Dolly Darlings, for example) ...

 

The purple table was from Anna-Maria's stall - a half-price offer I couldn't say no to (besides, I like the colour - it's the same purple as in the Kaleidoscope House!) The vases of carnations will go in 1960s or '70s houses, I think. The red, white and black vase was another of Joanne's mother's items, more recent than the cutlery and Barrett's accessories. I couldn't resist the box of Cluedo, complete with coloured game pieces - we had great fun playing Cluedo when I was growing up, and we still have our set, that looks just like this one!

Also from Anna-Maria are these two beautiful pieces:

A herb garden and a waterlily pond, both made by New Zealand miniaturists. I bought these when I visited Anna-Maria in Canberra, and saw her collection - and her stash! 

And from an old wares place near Bathurst, some more wallpaper:

The flowers on the middle pattern are too large for a dolls house, but I hope you can see the embossed columns in the white part, which I will be able to use.

Sydney Miniatures and Dolls' House Fair 2013

I was able to go to the fair on both days again this year.

On the first day, I said hi to Anna-Maria (The Shopping Sherpa), and she took photos of me in my dolls house T-shirt made for me by my sister:

"Rebecca's Collections" on the front, with a photo of a mini me in a mini dolls house room/study. (I think I must have been saying something to Anna-Maria!)

And on the back, Dolls Houses Past and Present, of which I am the site owner and magazine editor:

On the left of my T-shirt is a Walther & Stevenson farm house, ca 1930s, and on the right a Blue-Box plastic kitchen. You can see The Shopping Sherpa's amazingly colourful stall behind me!

I wandered over to look at the exhibits, and was taken with this dolls house, made by 9 year old Ella Fraser:

Yes, that's a bucket. She writes:

I really love the book The Borrowers and this miniature house is inspired by it. My little people live in a forgotten bucket in the back of a laundry cupboard. No-one knows they are there. Their home is full of old things and packaging that humans have thrown away, but they don't give back so that is why I called them The Takers. But they are good because they recycle everything.

A closer look:

A little further on I noticed this striking roombox:

A Milly-Molly-Mandy room, set between two volumes of Milly-Molly-Mandy stories! Nearby was a group of people, and I recognised the name tag of one of them: Margaret Webster from Tamworth, who had sent photos of her mystery dolls house to Dolls Houses Past and Present a couple of years ago! I was delighted to meet her, and it turned out that she had made the Milly-Molly-Mandy room!

To one side is the entry, with wellies, scarves and overcoats. On the other side is a scullery:

Milly-Molly-Mandy, in her pink and white striped dress, stands by her grandmother near the range.


Just near Margaret's roombox was another one in book form:

The clock face swings open to show:

a long corridor through a library, which opens to show:

A young man sitting at a desk, by shelves of old, leather-covered books - but on the wall in front of him are ... posters - of Bob Dylan! I think Margaret said that the creator of this room was also from Tamworth. I would have liked to hear more about it.
[EDIT: I was asked to remove the photos of this creation, so I will leave the description for your imagination ...]

Another striking exhibit:

Davidia Williams' new creation! This deserves a post of its own, so I'll show that, and my buys from the fair, in the next couple of posts.

And here's the furniture!

I could see from the auction listing that the book house I showed in my last post was something special - I could also see that most of the furniture had come from the Sydney toy shop Walther & Stevenson!

There's a pink Walther & Stevenson bedroom set:

and a blue Walther & Stevenson bedroom set:

(I'm not sure if the blue bed is from Walther & Stevenson - I'm pretty sure the blue dressing table isn't.)

Both sets have been painted twice. Walther & Stevenson sold them as natural plywood, which could be painted by the buyer, or left plain. The pieces which I bought with the Toyworks dolls house were left plain. These have apricot paint under the pink (the same pink as the house has been painted!), and pale mint green under the blue.

There's also a blue Walther & Stevenson kitchen set:

The two layers of paint on these pieces meant that the doors wouldn't open. I used a Stanley knife (box cutter) to work through the paint in the cracks, and managed to get one of the cupboard doors on the sink open, and both wardrobes.

Guess what I found in the pink wardrobe?!

Clothes! which had been painted in!!!

Here they are:

A wee dress, a top for a baby, a table cloth, a knitted jumper, and a lace skirt. Four dolls came with the house, two little girls and two babies. The dress and top fit two of the dolls perfectly:

The other little girl does fit into the jumper, but as she has no legs, she is more comfortable in the pram:

The living room furniture doesn't come from Walther & Stevenson. There are two homemade matchbox chairs, which need recovering:

And I forgot to photograph a homemade table, made from the screw-on lids of two jars with a wooden cotton reel between them (all painted pink, naturally).

I'm not sure about the fireplace - it is wooden, but professionally painted, unlike most of pieces sold by Walther & Stevenson:

The other furniture looks more recent. It is painted with European folk designs. There's another bed, with some chairs and a bench:

And a grandfather clock, table and bench:

The bed is signed underneath:

It looks like 'A. Kody'. (The taped name is presumably a former owner of the piece?)
I think I've seen other furniture on Australian ebay, with similar painted designs and also signed with this name. Does anyone know more about it, or have any?