I had just popped in to have a wander around and spotted this vintage dolls-house. At the weekend I had gone to a special exhibition in Dover Museum: ‘Museum in Miniature’ and seen similar Triang Dollshouses- so I had to stop and look at it more closely. I didn’t need it, of course not but… and it was just £10!
So, of course it did have to come home with me. I love how its paintwork matches our own. I may have to add a path going up to the front door, maybe minus the seagull poo though!
The ground floor in the right hand side of the house has a homemade black and white tiled floor with cigarette card image of a horse and frying pan hanging up on the wall.
Heavy plastic miniature dressing table with mirror was on the top floor, so I guess this would have been the bedroom. I will research the age of this type of plastic- it feel like an early type- perhaps Bakelite?
This is a close up of the floor- I think the covering board has been printed with a carpet design. From the style I am thinking the house may be from the 1940’s?
Some of the wonderful tiny items on display at Dover Museum- my favourite piece here is the budgie cage on a stand- so many of my relatives had one of these when I was growing up. Either that or hanging ones- all with a shower cap type cover on the base to stop the grit coming out and falling on the floor. All of it fascinating to a child. But the best thing was the budgie bird bath- memories!
Photo of a Triang dolls-house that we also saw in Dover Museum at the weekend.
A variety of ‘tools’ were ready to be used to open the left hand side, including my Snoopy spoon- actually by the time I had faffed around- the sun had shrunk the wood enough for it to swing open.
Another cigarette card- used as a painting on the wall in the past, but it had fallen down and was lying on the Vymura paper- used as flooring. Now I am going to have to look up Vymura to see when and where it was made. When I worked on commercial interior projects we used a wall finish called ‘Muraspec’- I am wondering now if these 2 companies were linked.
The three piece suite with its tint handmade felt cushions were hidden behind the closed section of the dolls house. I love the style of the suite- again when I did more interiors there was a company based in Brighton called Scandecor- who recreated this type of design for real. I wonder if they are still in operation- I loved their stuff.
Close up of the front entrance- just one door remaining- I love how someone has drawn a keyhole on it! I will have to make another door to match- through this gap you can see the staircase and its run of the vertical nail balustrade.
View through to the living room and its mystery clocks- they are in tiny metal cases but the faces are printed paper or card. This is the only room with a handmade paper shade on the ceiling pendant light- the other bulbs are bare.
This looks like the aftermath of a great Xmas party in my eyes! There is a lot of wiring in the attic that links to the pendant lights in the rooms below- much of it is not fit for use- I may need to rewire it all- or not bother- but think of the fun I can have making little paper shades if I do- I am already imaging some made out of paper doilies!
Early Bakelite (?) little cherub decoration that was found face down in the attic space.
The left hand side of the dolls house, which was jammed shut- had its curtains drawn too so I couldn’t see in whilst in the shop. It was really nice to open that section and see the space inside and the little hand made curtains that were hanging up.
The handmade curtains that had been obscuring my view into the dolls house when I was in the charity shop.
Here is a super close up of the little ‘bell’ that had been made from a red sticker dot- with ‘push’ written on it in tiny writing. Above it is another sign- I think I can make out ‘Residence of’ but cannot read the name underneath- any suggestions welcome.
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