Sydney Miniatures Fair 2014

After a lovely week in Bathurst (most days were glorious autumn weather, and the leaves on the trees were such brilliant colours, especially against the blue skies), I got the train to Sydney for the dolls house fair.

Staying in hotels in Sydney is new to me - for so many years, my sister has provided a home base there, but now she's in Bathurst, I looked for somewhere reasonably cheap and close to public transport. Strathfield is between Olympic Park, where the fair is held, and the city - and I'd realised that I could also spend some time in the State Library looking at toy trade journals. So I booked the single ensuite room at Whelan's Hotel in Strathfield, which is heritage-listed - just down the road from the block of flats my Australian Nana managed in the 1960s and 70s. I was going to include some photos of the hotel, and my room there, complete with vintage furniture! but I get very frustrated at not being able to position photos across the page, as we used to be able to do on Blogger - I don't want lots and lots of blank space around photos that aren't dolls house-related, so if you want to see my photos of the hotel, you can find them on facebook (I may add them to flickr sometime, too).

I went to the Miniatures Fair on Saturday morning, soon after it opened, and again on Sunday afternoon, until it closed. I caught up with Anna-Maria (The Shopping Sherpa) and Norma of Make Mine Mini - here we are together:

Margaret Webster of Tamworth very kindly took this photo for us, and then Anna-Maria took one of me with Margaret:

(Margaret owns the first dolls house posted on the Mystery Houses page of Dolls Houses Past and Present, and I showed photos of her Milly Molly Mandy room at the Fair last year.)

I also met Emily of Architecture of Tiny Distinction, thanks to Anna-Maria bringing her over to introduce us!

I didn't take as many photos as last year or the year before, but here are some things that caught my eye.

A long street of houses, with two sides:

 

Behind this display you can see Norma (in black with a blue top) standing behind her stall, and over to the left, with the row of bunting, is Anna-Maria's stand.

Visible in the background of this photo are many of the displays. On the far left is Davidia Williams' Shabby Chic Shop:

Davidia told me that she had had surgery this year, and so created something that was quick, rather than one of her very detailed period reconstructions (1960s Waldfrieden and modern 1226 Cliff Drive, Watsons Bay, in 2012; Tamara de Lempicka's 1930's Paris studio apartment last year, or the 1950s Rose Seidler House in 2009).
I guess for her it would take less time than those houses - there's still an incredible amount of detail in it, and I think she also made the Bear Hug shop and Japanese kitchen next to it (though she wasn't there on Sunday when I took these photos, so I couldn't check).

I'm sorry about the lopsided angles - there were two people sitting and talking right next to this display, so I couldn't get right in front of them.

Some exhibitors had made clever use of gift bags:

I love this scene of two little Caco girls making cupcakes!

There was also a Christmas bag room:

The Tamworth group had some shops too, including Margaret Webster's very inviting antiques shop, A Little Nostalgia. Spot the actual vintage items!

[EDIT: I have been asked to remove photos of another creation from Tamworth, a room in a book.]

Also from Tamworth were a lolly shop by Karen Brown:

[I have been asked to remove photos of a country kitchen made by another Tamworth member. It had a gun over the fireplace.]

(There were bushrangers around Tamworth and the New England Tableland in the 19th century, so an isolated country house would have kept a gun handy like this.)

Last year, Margaret Webster had a Milly Molly Mandy room - this year, someone else had Milly Molly Mandy's bedroom:

This one was made by Rhonda McDonald; I don't know where she is from.

Nearby was a witches' room, with a rather sad explanation:

Still in the realm of fantastic creatures was this Hut on Tyrannosaur's Legs, inhabited by Scribes, small genetically modified ground sloths:

This was created by Marilyn Pride, of the Blue Mountains group - I gather we'll see more of it next year.

Its neighbour in the display was a comics shop, guarded by a superhero:

I also photographed Margell Public School, which Anna-Maria bought:

It was created by a teacher who had always wanted to work in a one-teacher school, but never had the chance. (From what I've heard, it's very hard work - all years of primary school to plan for and teach, all the administrative work, and often all the cleaning too. I think a miniature one-teacher school would be much more fun!)

There were many, many more displays, but I hope you've enjoyed this small sample. I have yet to photograph my purchases, which I hope to do in the next few days. I also have quite a few photos from the 1972 and 1973 issues of the Australian toy trade journal, which I've started going through, plus a few more photos of my dolls houses in Bathurst - late April, early May is always such a rich time!

A Lumberjack dolls house?

I've been spending this week in Bathurst, with my sister. Sunday was the third anniversary of our mother's death, and we like to be together on that day and on her birthday.
This time, I flew down from Darwin and hired a car in Sydney to drive to Bathurst. Usually I get the train, but hiring a car meant I could meet up with my aunt in Sydney, and also collect two dolls houses in Sydney suburbs along the way.

The first one I collected was this:

It's 72.5 cm (28 1/2") wide (at the base) by 19 cm (7 1/2") deep. The lower rooms are 20.5 cm (8 1/8") high, and the front door is just under 15 cm (6") high by just over 9 cm (3 3/4") wide.

It has some features identical this one, which I found in a toy catalogue in the National Library a year ago:

The design of the door and the brickwork are the same, they both have shutters, although they are a different colour, and the same plastic windows are used. I think they are probably made by the same manufacturer. I wrote last year that I had found entries in recent business directories for Lumberjack-Bestoys, in Engadine, a suburb of Sydney, so there may be a link to Bestoys. I wasn't sure of the date of the Geoff Emerton 'Toyworld' catalogue I found it in, but thought it was probably from the late 1970s or the early 1980s.

With this dolls house, I can say that it probably dates from the 1980s at the earliest, as the front door is made from MDF, large-scale production of which began in the 1980s.

The main body of the house is pine wood, the front wall is hardboard, and the back wall and front door are MDF. It's an interesting design, which needs to be accessible from both sides at once, perhaps intended for two children to play at the same time. Some rooms are only accessible from the front, and some only from the back:

I think the door was originally attached by that bit of fabric which has come unstuck. I'm not sure if the bit of wood, forming a kind of latch, is original, although it may have been meant to stop the door swinging forward through the opening.

A bag of plastic furniture came with the house. Most of it is Linda from Hong Kong, the bathroom is Jean of West Germany, and some is unmarked.

The kitchen furnishings consist of a bright yellow sink and stove, with a table and chairs. Only the chairs are marked (Made in Hong Kong).

 

The bedroom has a lovely bright green Linda of Hong Kong set:

Most of these pieces are not marked at all - I recognise them from the Linda boxes I have (although the bedroom set on my boxes is shown in pink and red). So it's possible that the unmarked kitchen pieces are also made by Linda, but they are not the kitchen set shown on the boxes.

The dining room is also Linda:

- or at least I recognise the dining table and the sideboard from the sets and boxes I have. The chairs are a different design - they are marked Made in Hong Kong, but whether they are from Linda or another brand, I'm not sure. I'm not sure who made the bookcase, either - I have one sold by Fairylite, but it doesn't have the sliding doors. Unless I find these pieces in a boxed set, I probably won't know!

The pink bathroom set is clearly marked W. Germany, and is by Jean:

The yellow cot and the rocking horse are from the Linda nursery set, but I don't know who made the baby bath / change table - although it's marked Made in Hong Kong, it's a soft plastic quite different from the Linda pieces. (I'm not sure what the thing in front is - possibly baby scales, missing the bowl to place the baby in??)

I like the bright yellow, green and pink furniture against the pine (and MDF!) walls of this house. There's no living room furniture, so I may bring my red Linda living room pieces down from Darwin.

I wonder which dolls lived here? Probably they would have been plastic, like all the furniture, so perhaps I'll look for some 1980s plastic dolls who need a home.

Tell Laura I Love Her ...

I recently bought two fantastic catalogues on Australian ebay, from a Sydney toy shop called Hoffnung's. They are from 1968 and 1969, and as well as the toy shop's list of stock, prices, and some black and white illustrations, they both have bound into them various manufacturers' catalogues! Both have Bestoys catalogues!
The Laura dolls house is in both years. You may remember that when I showed my Bestoys Bambolina dolls house, I mentioned that Anna-Maria is very kindly storing for me another Bestoys dolls house called Laura, which she collected for me from a Canberra seller. That Laura looks like this:

The 1968 and 1969 Bestoys catalogues show two other, different Lauras!!!

Here is the one from 1968:

and here is the new Laura from 1969:

I think that my Canberra Laura probably dates from 1970 or just after - it has the same diamond-shaped moulding on the roof as the 1969 Laura, and I can imagine that the artificial flowers might have looked great to start with, but not lasted very long ... so replacing them with a fancy lithographed railing would make sense.

Not long after I received the catalogues, I spotted the 1968 Laura on ebay!!

Missing the front door, but still, look at that lovely sixties crazy paving style flooring!

And the gorgeous aqua shutters!

So, I put a bid on straight away. A middling bid - not as high as I would probably decide to go, but not low either.

Then, the night before the auction ended, I was working late on the Dolls Houses Past and Present magazine (as I have been most evenings the last few weeks), then stopped, went to ebay, put a bid on one auction and .... zooop! ... the power went off. Not just in my house, but all around too. So I got the torch, lit some candles, and did the night chores by candle light - went to bed by torch light - and got up the next morning to find - yep, STILL NO POWER!

The power was off right across the Darwin region, even as far south as Katherine (300 km away). The government had to shut schools and government offices, the police ordered the buses off the roads because it was too dangerous, and had police cadets directing traffic at some intersections until they could get generators for the traffic lights ... and I couldn't bid on my Laura!!!

In my consternation, it didn't occur to me to ring my sister and ask her to bid for me. I have a landline that doesn't need power - very useful in a place that often has blackouts, though they are not usually this long except after cyclones. The power was out at my place for over 12 hours - some suburbs got it back sooner, some later (they had to stagger it, apparently).

So I lost my Laura! To know about three different models of the same Australian-made dolls house, to have the possibility of owning two of them - and then to lose, because of a power outage - I was devastated - and also very cross!

I did message the seller to explain, and say, in case of non-payment or any problems, I was still interested! However, both seller and buyer have left feedback on the auction, so Laura has a new owner, who is not me :-( I just hope they don't wreck renovate her and destroy the original features!

At least I have the photos, so I know the colours of the walls, shutters, flooring and so on ...

Similar colouring to the Canberra Laura, but that is plainer:

The Canberra (ie probably ca 1970) door slides, rather than being hinged as the earlier door is:

So, although I have two Bestoys dolls houses (Bambolina and Canberra Laura), I can't really say I have a collection, yet. Perhaps another Laura will pop up ...

In fact, one already has - with balcony railings and shutters which have the diamond-shaped moulding, but with a hinged door! so clearly I do not yet have enough evidence to date the series ....

But this Laura has been overpainted :-( Is it worthwhile trying to buy her? She would not be as easy to reach as the Laura I lost, which was in the Blue Mountains - this one is in a western Sydney suburb ...

The Bestoys 1969 catalogue has given me another dolls house to dream about, too: Cinderella! Strange name for an A-frame, but I won't hold it against her.