Was the chamber pot the original indoor "plumbing"? With an introduction on chamber pots  by Rhu McBee, the newest book by Patty Cooper is all about dollhouse bathrooms.  From the "almost lovely" wooden bath pieces produced in Germany around 1900, to their metal bathroom pieces and bath roomboxes in the 1920s, collectors of dollhouses from this time period have a large variety of bathrooms to choose from.  Not to be left behind, America and the UK  jumped right in with bath pieces made of metal, wood and plaster. We find them in the same colors that were pop ..read more

Say hello to the Jurgensons.... Jerry, Janice and their little daughter Jezebel. This is their home, a two story, five room house with side chimney and attached kitchen. It was manufactured by Keystone of Boston  and appeared in their catalog of 1938-39.  Jerry and Janice saw it, liked it and ordered it immediately. Janice insisted I wallpaper every room,  not my favorite thing to do.          Here we find Jerry and Janice sitting quietly in the living room. Pick one: 1) not on speaking terms. 2) waiting for the other one to fix dinner ..read more

  This dollhouse was produced  in 1934, the last year of production for the A. Schoenhut Company of Philadelphia, Pennsalvania. It has suffered some water damage, is missing the chimney, and was missing the door and two windows when it arrived. I will get around to making a chimney one day. I made the door....and then installed it the wrong way, that's why the door knob is on the right side. I "borrowed" two windows from the side of another small Schoenhut, because in my Dollhouse Village, having front windows is more important than having side windows! This illustration is ..read more

Midget Manor is a good descriptive name for this little tin dollhouse manufactured by Ohio Art between 1949-1951, as it measures only 6" wide, 2" deep and 5" tall.  It sits on a base 8¼" by 3", lithographed as a yard and side patio. Theodore and Maxine Bumfielder live on the west side in their little tin house. Their house is well furnished with the plastic furniture  that came with it when they bought it.  Theodore is waiting in the kitchen for Maxine to fix his breakfast. He is dressed for work and has his briefcase and umbrella at the ready ....and his hat on ..read more

Chunky wood dollhouse furniture, sold mostly in dimestores during the 1940s, is highly collectable.  If you, like me, are curious about who made these pieces in your collection, this new book by Patty Cooper will help you identify them.  This is a companion book to Patty's Nancy Forbes and Donna Lee Dollhouse Furniture  and covers the smaller, lesser known companies that sold the inexpensive wood dollhouse furniture at the dimestores beloved by children of that era.  You are probably familiar with Wanner, often referred to as Grand Rapids,  and can usually identif ..read more

* indicates there is more information at the end of the post This is the Joneses house, a 1936 Rich Toys Tudor.  But don't tell the Joneses it's a dollhouse,  because they think it's a real house. *1                And these are the Joneses.... Gerald, Marilyn, Teddy (Theodore), and Butch (Gerald, Jr).  And of course the dog, Lester (Lestershire).   They are Caco dolls from Germany. *2 This is the back of the Joneses house, with living room,  kitchen and dining room on the first floor and tw ..read more

  This is Marion's childhood dollhouse, built with love by her father, and gifted to her for Christmas when she was about 8. It was her favorite toy and she played with it constantly. Marion has decided that it is time for some other little girl, or "big" girl, to be able to love and enjoy it like she has over the years.  It is solidly built of wood and on the large size....45" wide, 28" high and 18" deep. To me, it has a European influence similar to the dollhouses built in Germany in the late 1940s and early 50s. Marion shared that her father was born and grew up in Germany, so ..read more

....then this new book by Patty Cooper was written just for you! These two lines of dollhouse furniture were made during the 1940s by different companies founded by three Rapaport brothers who had immigrated from Poland.  We have all collected this rather ordinary furniture, made of Swedish blonde maple and genuine walnut, for our dollhouses.  With no makers mark, it is hard for us to identify these pieces of furniture made in scales from 1:24 to 1:12.  Patty has excelled once more in organizing the different series of each brand of furniture and providing illustrat ..read more

  The Durrell Company in Boston, Massachusetts, produced a series of fiberboard  dollhouses in the late 1920's. Several houses were made in various sizes and slightly different designs. Designs were painted both on the exterior and interior....shutters and plants on the outside with curtains on the inside. Several advertisements of Trixytoy dollhouses have been found: A small 2 room cottage, a brightly colored 2 story with 4 rooms, and a lovely Trixytoy Mansion with 2 stories, 5 rooms and a sun room.  These Trixytoy dollhouses have survived well over the years and are ..read more

  What makes a dollhouse a home? Why, all the accessories that have been available since the first dollhouse was constructed in the late 1600s. From little girls with their first dollhouses to the mature collector of fabulous homes, the  multiple accessories that have been available have made their dollhouses complete.  One of the most prolific suppliers of dollhouse accessories was the company known as Grandmother Stover's. Patty has included a fascinating history of the company and the man behind it,  John Stover.  Starting out as a cottage industry about 1943, G ..read more