My First Fair!

This year, I managed to get to the Sydney Miniatures and Dolls House Fair - 3 weeks ago now, on the 1st weekend in May. I went on both days - Saturday from about midday, and Sunday late in the afternoon.
Here are some photos of things that caught my eye.

Right inside the door, DolArtistry had a pumpkin or gourd house, with a turtle moving house just to the left of it:


On the maroon cloth, a miniature gourd lady making gourd houses, with other fictional and historical characters nearby:



A great display by Bill Maguire of Leprechaun Models:


Bill was displaying these, not selling them, and he told me that he is also shows them in schools (especially the Tudor houses), and explains to the kids what houses were like then, and where we get words like 'threshhold' and 'chairman'. His card, B. & V. Architectural Models, mentions scale models for things like development applications and architects presentations.


I would have loved to buy one of his houses - they're made of cardboard, so they're light, and they're small scale, so wouldn't take up much room. The Queenslander at the end of the display did not have an accessible interior, but look at the detailing in the interior of some of the other houses:


The roof and the upper storey lift off in this house, giving access to both floors.




An A-frame house with just one floor:


Here are some other exhibits - a garage with a sports car (if this had the name of the exhibitor, I didn't get it, sorry):


A 1/48th (quarter inch) scale tower by Elizabeth Barnes, and a room by Dawn Watson:


A scene by Marion Hesketh:


Jody and Sarah's Rainy Day, by Rhonda McDonald:


A multi-storey building housed in JazWare's Room by Room, which was made by Felicity (aged 12) and Emma (aged 10), and includes the Pendington-Smythe Bakery and the Willow Tree Tea Rooms. Some of the dolls and furnishings are vintage - can you see the little costume dolls in the central room, and the larger one in the bakery?


Diva's display houses deserve a post of their own, so here are some shots of miniaturist stalls.

Right at the back, Geoff Nott and friend were making trees:


I don't know if Geoff Nott has a website - I found some better photos of his work online, though.

Elizabeth Barnes' stall:

(At the back, on the right, is a stall I bought some flowers from.)

And a closeup of her 1/48th or quarter inch scale Senrabe miniatures:


On Adelaide's Miniatures' stall were these great displays:




On Kim's Miniatures' stall was some fabulous miniature marquetry:


The Shopping Sherpa posted about Kim's Miniatures' scrumptious food - you can see the tables with chocolates being made in the middle of this photo. My sister bought some potatoes here - I bought some Nana crochet rugs and some cake tins, which I will show in another post ...

And here is The Shopping Sherpa's stall:


Yes, Anna-Maria and I met, in the flesh! (Thank you, Norma of make mine mini, for taking photos of us!)
I'm oohing and aahing about the towel in the bathroom of her Tomy Smaller Home (which went home with me ...)

More soon - my buys, and Diva's houses!

Growing up with Galt

I recently bought a catalogue of Galt toys, and was delighted to find most of the Galt things I remembered from my childhood - and to identify some which I hadn't realised were from Galt! The photo above shows most of them in a group.

The cover of the catalogue. I can't find a date, but it's pre 1971, when the British currency was decimalised.

One of my favourites among our Galt toys is the Pattern Jigsaw:


This is cut along the edges of the different coloured shapes, so completing the jigsaw is a matter of fitting the shapes together - and matching the tiny edges of colour left on some pieces. It's painted directly onto the wood. I love the animal shapes, abstract designs and the colours.
Here it is in the catalogue, described as "difficult enough to occupy for a long time the child of 6 or over who is expert at jigsaws" (strangely, no designer is named):

On the same page, there are other jigsaws illustrated, including these Picture Book Jigsaws, from a children's book by A. and M. Provenson:


I have the first two, and I didn't know that they were also from Galt! They are Farm House and Old City, and they are printed on paper stuck onto the wood; a couple of bits have come away from the wood over the years:




Also among the jigsaws is my sister's Teddy Bear, on the bottom left among the Early Tray Jigsaws, designed by Beryl Coles and J. M. Miles:



(Teddy's foot has been missing for quite some time, poor thing!)

In the section of toys for the first three years, I recognise two which I can remember playing with:



10 coloured plastic nuts to screw onto a threaded rod, and pegs to hammer down ...

And someone I recognise well, but I had no idea he was from Galt -

Moppet! We also had the girl doll - she was probably my sister's - but for some reason we didn't keep her. Moppet is mine, and we still have him! (And, as my sister said, clearly his hair is meant to be as wild as it is!)

For children in their 3rd and 4th years, there is a cute little village:

I don't think we had this, though I can remember little carved wooden trees and people and sheep - perhaps from another, similar set ....

But this I do recognise - and not only did we have it, but we still do - I found it in a cupboard!

Noah's Ark - "specially made for us by hand craftsmen using the natural colour and grain of various woods." (And coloured wood for Noah and Mrs Noah, unless they found red and green woods ....) .... "A very beautiful toy to be treasured in the family for many years."

Yes indeed! You can see the wood grain even in the catalogue photo, and I hope you can see it in the photos (sorry about the rather ordinary background):



(The Noah's Ark box is at the back of the first photo in this blogpost, and still has part of its label.)

The middle pages of the catalogue are in colour, and show the wall charts available. Here I found an old friend:

Wanderland! This poster was on our bedroom wall - all I really remember of it is "She sells sea shells on the sea shore," which is at the bottom, just to the left of the sailing ship ("I saw three ships come sailing in!")
According to the catalogue, this was designed by Philippa Threlfall, and has a landscape peopled by characters from nursery rhymes and stories - to which I would add, Christmas carols and mythology ....

Not surprisingly, perhaps, we didn't have any of the Galt out of doors equipment or the storage and furniture - much too heavy to post to Australia! Galt made two dolls houses - or rather, one open-sided dolls house:


and a set of doll's play rooms, which could be arranged to make bungalows or houses or several storeys:


I don't remember our childhood dolls house well - I just have an impression of white walls inside and out - but I don't think it was from Galt. Perhaps some of our dolls house dolls were, however, as - along with the Erna Meyer dolls and Bessie and Darlow - we had some Dol-toi dolls, which were sold by Galt in Galt boxes:


The Barton dolls house furniture pictured here sometimes comes up on UK ebay packaged in Galt boxes; once or twice I have seen some Dol-toi dolls in Galt boxes too.

This Galt catalogue includes a Memory game for children of 7 and up, "greatly enjoyed [by them] not least because they nearly always win against adults"!


We have a set of Galt memory cards (though not the box) - but they must have been from a different catalogue, because the pictures are different. Here are some of the pictures on our set:

I had trouble getting some of the colours accurate - the red of the crab and behind the paint box is more of a vermilion shade, and the blue behind the sailing ship is a deeper teal colour - very rich and bright.

The set of smaller Memory cards includes other designs too, which we also have as a set of larger cards, perhaps for Snap? I don't know who the designer was, as the larger set isn't listed in this catalogue either.

We also have Galt Octons, which are not in this catalogue - and which I don't have here to photograph. I'll add a photo when I can.

At the end of the catalogue are Stocking Fillers, and here is one thing we had:

A mobile made with Japanese paper balls ....

and another which we still have:



Glass threading beads in brilliant colours!

Galt Toys is still going, and from the look of the 2011 catalogue, still brightly coloured - but not surprisingly, a rather different range from the late 1960s. I wonder if they're as strong and long-lasting?

A Matchbox House

I was inspired by the tiny houses Dolls Houses Past and Present members have been making. I found an old matchbox, with the shell and the sides of the box made of wood. I cut down one side of the shell so I could turn it inside out ....


I really like the unstained, golden wood the matchbox shell is made of. I think I will paint the door and windows on, and perhaps add a pediment or parapet to the roof, but otherwise keep the bare wood of the outer walls.


The colour of the other sides of the matchbox reminded me a lot of some of the houses in Liza Antrim's book Family Dolls' Houses of the 18th & 19th Centuries, and I've kept it on what are now the inside walls of the house as the wallpaper. I made the base out of balsa, and the dresser is balsa and another strip of matchbox.
It does still needs some decorating! I'll look for some old wallpaper to put over the matchbox label.


The striking sides of the matchbox are perfect for fireplaces. I cut fireplace shapes out of the long, papered, side of the matchbox drawer, and stuck that over the black side.



So, now to add some more details - and some furnishings!

Hey! It was Easter!

Hope you got some eggs this Easter!

A belated happy Easter, dear blogging friends! ☺ A Happy Passover to my Jewish friends! ☺ And a Happy Easter to come to my Greek and Russian friends! ☺ Best wishes to all of you! ♡

There's a Hippopotamus on my roof ...

... eating cake ....