Unexpected Treasures

After finding dolls house furniture at the Mitchell Road Antiques Centre in Alexandria, I didn't really expect to find more at other antiques and collectables shops. On Tuesday, I went to Recycling Works, in Annandale (another Sydney suburb). I had been there once before, and found some interesting bits and pieces, though nothing actually intended for a dolls house.

I had a pleasant surprise this time - there were two vintage dolls houses for sale! They weren't cheap (more than I would expect them to sell on ebay for), and I thought about them for a while.

This is one of them:

I think it's a Toy Works house, made in the UK in the 1960s or 70s. It's hardboard with paper litho, and as you can see, it's not in great condition. It's missing 3 lots of window shutters and the front door, and it has some small areas of damage. Although the guy in the shop tried to convince me that it had not had a front door at all, he did knock $50 off the price because of the missing shutters.

The house came with some furniture:

All the furniture is wooden, and it's mostly the chunky, simple pieces made nowadays for very young children.
Some furniture is missing a part:

Some seems rather out of scale (not that that usually worries me too much):

I'm not sure what this is meant to be - a bread box???

On first glance, not very exciting ....

But then I looked more closely, and got quite excited - and decided I had to buy it! Can you guess which pieces of furniture I'm excited about?

Miniatures from Alexandria

This probably sounds very exotic, but actually, there's a Sydney suburb called Alexandria, and that's where my sister and I went on Friday, to shop at Petbarn and go to a large antiques and collectables centre.
It was very hot - the centre is not airconditioned, and while there were some large floor fans dotted around the place, they didn't reach all areas. However, we had a good look at all the stalls, and we both found things to buy.
Here's the dolls house furniture I found:

Some lovely vintage 70s upholstered chairs, and a 1960s TV!

The chair and sofa look handmade:

The chair is about 3 1/2 inches across, 3 3/4 inches deep, and 3 3/4 inches high.

The sofa is about 5 1/2 inches across, 2 1/2 inches deep, and 2 1/4 inches high.

They seem to have a makers mark on them - see the arrows on two feet of each piece, like this: /|\

I haven't seen this mark before. It looks a bit like the broad arrow, that was (and is) used to mark government property in Australia and other British colonies, and appeared on convict uniforms and convict-built bridges etc. But I don't know what it would mean on dolls house furniture from the 1970s. I'd love to know who made it!

The TV is actually a salt and pepper shaker set:

You raise the salt and pepper containers by turning the ON button on the front of the TV!

The screen of the TV can be pushed in slightly, to insert a photo between the screen and the frame surrounding it.

It's just under 3 1/2 inches wide, 3 inches high, and 2 inches deep.

It came with its box - it's called the Tiny T-V salt and pepper set, but it doesn't have a maker's name, it just says Made in USA and Pat. Pending.

Perhaps someone will recognise it?

I also bought a card of lace, which feels machine-made, probably nylon or polyester, and has a sweet design I thought would look good in a small dolls house - it's 3/4 inch wide:

It was fun going shopping with my sister - the first time we've really been able to do it since I arrived before Christmas. And it was lovely to find some vintage dolls house furniture, too!

A New Year

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. After my last post in September, I was very busy with the Dolls Houses Past and Present magazine. I finished that in mid December, and a few days later flew down to Sydney for Christmas. Christmas Day itself was pleasant - we had Christmas lunch with my aunt at my sister's place, a first, as we usually have it at my aunt's place.

Our little tree, with a White Hart from the National Gallery in London,
a vintage celluloid Santa, and  a Kits Coty dolls house decoration from the Hampton Collection.
The photos aren't terrific, I'm sorry - my camera says the batteries are low,
though they've just been recharged, and I could not actually see what I was pointing the camera at!

I had brought decorations, and did manage to put them up - but from November I had had small patches of fungal infection - the "build-up" season in Darwin (the time between the dry season and when the rains start in the wet season) was very long and very hot last year. Then I developed what seemed to be bacterial infections in the groin area - a doctor in Darwin had prescribed antibiotics, and a doctor I saw here in Sydney after Christmas prescribed a different antibiotic, and also antifungal cream.

The Christian Hacker House from the Hampton Collection,
and  the Circa 1910 Eclectic House from the Bing & Grøndahl Collection

But after 3 courses of antibiotics, it was no better - in fact, it was a solid mass of infection so painful that I could hardly stand, sit or walk - so the doctor here in Sydney sent me for intravenous antibiotics. Instead of staying in hospital, I was a patient in what they call Hospital in the Home, which meant that my sister drove me to and from the hospital twice a day for the first five days, after which I went once a day. The time we spent at the hospital varied from 2 hours to 7 hours each day, including the waiting time (as it is a GP Casualty, and they also treat people who come in with possible sprains, dislocations, and gastro-intestinal or urinary infections, etc). I was given two kinds of antibiotics, which acted on the cellulitis very quickly - we could see improvements daily. And after about 5 days, I started feeling better - and realised how sick I had been feeling. At the end of the 10 days, they referred me to a dermatologist at another hospital - they thought the remaining infection might be psoriasis.

Gertrude's House (left) and the 1920's House (right), from the Bing & Grøndahl Collection.
The jewelled cross above them is from the National Gallery in London.

It turned out not to be - the dermatologist thought it was fungal, and 10 days after I first saw the dermatologist, the ID came back - the infection is caused by a fungus called Trichophyton mentagrophytes, which can cause ringworm, tinea, and kerions - fungal infections of the hair follicles accompanied by secondary bacterial infection and marked by raised, usually pus-filled and spongy lesions - which is what I have had.
So now I am taking oral anti-fungal medication, which is given in cycles - two tablets twice a day for a week, then 3 weeks without tablets, for 3 or 4 months. This infection is responding more slowly than the bacterial infection did, but it is slowly improving. I should have been back at work in Darwin this week, but the dermatologist wants to see me again in the second week of February, before I start the next cycle, and will then see how it's going.

Angel from the National Gallery in London

The dermatologist here is more used to seeing it on the scalp and in beards, but I discovered a US Army medical history website, which says that servicemen frequently suffered from it during the Vietnam War, on their legs, groin and torso - and that it often flared up again when they returned to the hot wet conditions they were fighting in. The drug I'm taking was developed in 1984, so hopefully it is more effective than whatever was used in Vietnam - otherwise I'll have to move from Darwin to a drier climate!   

The nativity set which my godmother gave me when I was a child. The stable is plywood, and the figures are plastic.

This is a rather different kind of post from my usual, but I wanted to let you know why I've been absent - from posting, and from commenting on your blogs - and to wish you all, belatedly, a happy, healthy and enjoyable Christmas and New Year! My only goal so far has been to get well, and I have been very grateful for the care, attention and friendliness of all the wonderful doctors and nurses who have treated me. The infection is still painful, but I am feeling much, much better, and yesterday my sister and I went to an antiques and collectables mall! I even found some dolls house furniture, which I will show in my next post - very soon!

A new dolls house

I don't know if you'll remember the scans I showed last year, from the very grandly named The Australian, New Zealand & Southern Equatorial Sportsgoods & Toy & Canvasgoods Retailer? The April 1953 issue has a full-page advertisement for a shop called "Elegant" Novelties, in Flinders Lane, Melbourne:

On the top shelf, at the back, are two dolls houses:

You can imagine my excitement when I saw the larger house on ebay earlier this year! Thanks to some friends of my sister's, who collected the house from the seller, I was able to get it freighted up to Darwin, and I picked it up on Monday!

I can't tell from the ad what colours the exterior was painted, but it has definitely been repainted. I can see tiny bits of red under the black paint on the window frames, and there is some green showing through the black paint on the central diamond shape. I don't think I'll try removing the black paint - I never get finished with exterior restorations, and I quite like the black as it is!

It's a book-style dolls house - it's hinged at the back, and both sides swing open, showing five rooms inside.  When I got it, it has bright red sticky-backed plastic (contact / fablon) on all the floors. That came off very easily, but has left a sticky residue. I just checked on Dolls Houses Past and Present, and someone had success using white spirit (methylated spirits?), so I might give that a go. I don't want to use eucalyptus oil, which is excellent for removing adhesive residue, because I think it might damage the flooring.

 I think I'll use this room as the bedroom.

Each room has different flooring. I'm not sure exactly what it is - an earlier version of contact/fablon? oilcloth? Lovely period designs, anyway! The walls are quite simply decorated - painted in a base colour, and then spattered with red paint - very simple and effective!

 This will probably be the living room.

This is the only room which had been repapered. Luckily it wasn't stuck down very hard - the main glue residue is on the front edges. The curtains are not original in any rooms - in this room, they were stapled in over the recent wallpaper.

This flooring looks good for the kitchen to me!

Two smaller rooms - the tiled floor suggests a bathroom, 

and perhaps the other room was intended as a laundry?

This photo finally shows the fireplaces! They are cut in each large room, at the inside front edge. Behind the walls at this point are planks of wood to which the hinges are attached - I'll take a photo of the back of the house so you can see that, and another of the fireplaces.
In this photo you can also see some recently applied wallpaper borders. I will remove this - the paper itself will come off easily, but there will be glue residue, so I haven't ripped it off straight away, having just spent some time removing the residue left by the glue under the wallpaper in the top right room.

I'm delighted to have this house, which is unique among my Australian houses in that I know exactly when and where it came from! I don't know who made it, but without the ad for Elegant Novelties, I might well have thought this was another homemade house, and wouldn't have been so sure of its age. (Of course, they were probably made in other years as well as 1953 - maybe sometime I'll be able to go through more issues of the Australian (etc) Toy (etc) Retailer, and see if it appears again.

The furniture that came with it was mostly quite recent tab and slot stuff, which I won't be keeping. I'm looking forward to going through my stash of furnishings and seeing what suits it. First, though, I have to work out where on earth - or rather, in my small townhouse - I am going to put it? I have too many dolls houses - or my house is too small, whichever way you want to look at it!

Make your own 1970s chairs

I did buy a few other things at the fair - a book and a couple of magazines. The book was from the stand next to Anna-Maria's, and when I showed Anna-Maria the pictures, she said, "Why didn't I think of that!? Will you scan the pages?"
So here they are - with all the colour illustrations, because I love seeing how 70s style was represented here!



The book is called How to Decorate a doll's house, by Eve Barwell, published by Studio Vista in 1975 (ISBN 0289 70509 6). The 70s was when dolls houses and miniatures really took off as an adult hobby, but this book was written for children (as was the rest of the Studio Vista How To series - How to Amuse yourself on a journey, How to Disguise yourself, How to Mend your bike, How to Start using tools, etc ).

The introduction does explain about scales, particularly 1 inch to one foot and 3/4 inch to one foot, and recommends sticking to whichever scale you choose. It doesn't give measurements in the directions for making furniture, but suggests using the furniture in your own home to check the right size for your doll's house.

A lot of tips are given about how to decorate the house, based on who will be using the room, when and how often ...

The first room that visitors see is the hall, so it must be welcoming. However, it's a room where no-one spends much time, so the colours can be strong and dramatic:


An elegant, clean and bright hall, with its purple carpet and vase of red flowers giving a splash of colour ... (I have mentioned before the house which we rented in 1978, which had purple carpets and red curtains - or was it the other way around? - in rooms in which we spent a great deal of time. Clearly the decorators had not read this book.)

Postage stamps are one suggestion for pictures - an idea I have used myself (for example, here and here, although they would look better hung!!) - but personally, I prefer pictorial subjects to Willy Brandt and the Queen ...

The living room, of course, is where people spend a lot of time, and because of this it needs restful colours such as blue, brown or beige ...

Hello, Mr and Mrs Dol-toi!

This living room is decorated in beige and brown with splashes of contrasting green; orange or yellow would also have contrasted well ... A brown carpet and beige curtains would have worked just as well as a beige carpet and brown curtains, but not brown carpet and brown curtains - that would make the room seem dark and small (!).

Here are the instructions for making the living room chairs - of cardboard covered with fabric on both sides, with either pipecleaners or cardboard cut-out rectangles for the arms and legs:



For extra chairs in the living room, take some cardboard packaging (the kind which used to be used round fruit; is it still??) and make bucket chairs:


The colour scheme for the kitchen is yellow and orange, with a red Venetian blind - bright, warm colours making the room seem sunny and gay:


The cupboards and fitments are white, to make them look extra clean and bright - but the floor is patterned, as a plain colour would soon look dirty.

Here are the instructions for making this bright, white kitchen table and chairs - from polystyrene trays and cocktail sticks:



A pretty and restful colour scheme for the parents' bedroom:


and bright, primary colours for the children's bedroom / playroom:

Master and Miss Dol-toi happily playing in their bedroom

Before the Fair

Well, you've seen what I found at the fair. The day before the fair, my sister and I drove through the Blue Mountains to Sydney. We were running late leaving, and we were meeting our aunt for afternoon tea (already rescheduled from lunch). So when we stopped, my sister said "Just 10 minutes!"
I'd say we both had several lots of 10 minutes, in a bookshop, an antiques centre and a cafe! I had a quick scan of the downstairs displays in the antiques centre, and then went to get a hot drink before pushing on. I'd finished my drink by the time my sister came for hers, so I left her browsing her bookshop finds and scooted in again and whizzed through the upstairs section of the antiques centre - until I came to a cabinet which had all this in it:

A china or porcelain dinner set with a sweet design which looks rather like clover (the sauceboat is marked Germany) - and a set of four little blue serviettes (or napkins, depending where you're from), in rings!!!


(Actually, not the furniture (tables, chair, sideboard) - they're recent ebay purchases which I'm just using to display the miniature sets.)

A turned wooden dinner set, including a tureen and comport, painted with a design of cherries, and a vase of flowers:


A green painted wooden tea set, missing the saucers:


A set of four blue painted wooden cups and saucers (set out here with the same set of serviettes):


A green and gold turned wooden set of decanter & goblets on a tray:


A clock, some larger cutlery (marked Germany) and a larger serviette & ring:


A bowl of fruit and what I was most excited about, tiny turned wooden salt and pepper shakers!!! The guy in the shop (not the seller whose display cabinet these were from, but the guy on the till) said he'd seen others before. But I hadn't - not this small, dolls house sized. All the other items, yes, some more often than others - but I am delighted to have salt and pepper shakers, and I'm not sure how I'll decide which house to put them in! Perhaps I should put them in Tim's shop, and see who buys them.


In the same display cabinet was this little ring of charms - I almost didn't get it, but the little people in their big hats are so sweet! They're just over 1/2" long.