Sunday, January 20, 2013

Red Roof and Bay Window Gottschalk - Antique Dollhouse

This lovely little house has a red roof and many other characteristics of a Gottschalk dollhouse. The latice pattern above the front door is often found on that brand of house. The pressed cardboard window frames for the tiny panes in each window are also a Gottschalk trait.

I love the configuration of the recessed front door with the box window above it. It is unusual, as is the 5-bay window on the other side.

Here is a picture of the dollhouse from the Gottschalk catalog. I don't know if my window panes are original as they are very different from these, but the rest of the house looks very much the same as this.

Perhaps mine is a later issue. My front door is lighter. The base on mine does not have a brick pattern. it may have been removed or it may have never existed if mine is a later edition.
The house also has the typical Gottschalk door with the paint outlines, and metal door knob.

The house has four rooms and an attic. The entry hall to the house has a removable staircase and a closet at the back. Gottschalk houses typically have a toilet in that closet, but this house is missing it.

Some well meaning soul decided to "fix up" this house and has stripped off the original floor and wall papers.


Remnants of the original wall paper are in the room above the stairs and both rooms on that side of this house have some of their original floor papers.

It just about breaks my heart to see these "improvements" but what happens to a dollhouse before it comes to me is out of my control. I may seek out reproductions of the original papers and try to undo the damage.

Here are the two larger rooms with their new wall paper. Yes, it's pretty, but it is not appropriate for this house.

The outside of the house has also been stripped. I wish I could find a picture of what it is supposed to look like so I could restore it. I am sure one will show up sooner or later.

I decided to furnish the house with Golden Oak Schneegas and German red stain furniture from the first decade or two of the twentieth century.

In the front hall little Freddie and Pal are playing with a couple of wooden toys. behind Freddie is a Schneegas chair with an upholstered seat and back.

The rug is a tobacco felt.
On the opposite wall is a German red stain buffet with a stemmed brass bowl on it. The large pink vase is contemporary to the room as well.


Gran is in the parlour. She has just enjoyed a nice cup of tea. But if all Gran had was tea why is that wine glass on the tray? Hmm ...

Most of the furniture in here is red stain, but the lamp is my only piece of Westacre furniture. Westacre was a company in England that made lovely hand crafted dollhouse furniture circa 1920/1930. I have heard it called the English Tynietoy, although it is very different in design.
The couch and chair are red stain as are the nesting tables, buffet and centre table. The metal pieces are from the early 20th century and were common dollhouse accessories at that time

In the bay window is a lovely little red stain radio.




When you lift the lid you find the radio knobs. Open the door and there is the speaker. I am sure the family is very proud to own such a fine appliance.

Beside the wing chair in the living room is a wonderful magazine rack. Troy of Tulsa Tiny Stuff made this and I was lucky enough to win it when he did a give-away to celebrate 100 followers on his blog.

Isn't it wonderful? I think it goes so well with this chair.

The rug is a tobacco felt. The needlepoint cushions are new, but they look so nice with the green velvet I decided to use them.

Upstairs Father has a beautiful Schneegas golden oak desk in his study.

The shelf above the desk with the protruding nails was in the house when I got it. I have no idea whether it is original. It looks a little rough, so I am not sure.



Behind Father is a comfy Schneegas chair where he can relax when he is not working and a metal heater to keep him cozy. There is an elaborate clock on the wall which, unfortunately, is missing its turned wood decorations at the top.

Another tobacco felt is on the floor.

Mother is in the bedroom. It is also furnished with Schneegas golden oak. There is a smaller, less elaborate desk in here, but Mother likes it just fine.

In the bay window of the bedroom is a nice little washstand with pressed designs in the doors.

The decorative glass pieces throughout the house are all mouth blown. This type of glass was available for dollhouses for hundreds of years. I don't know the exact age of my pieces, but I am sure that some are from the early 20th century and I think some is mid-20th century.

When I have a small dollhouse like this I feel that rooms we don't see - the kitchen, children's room and Granny's room, etc. - are in a part of the house that exists only in my imagination.

That makes sense to me and I don't have to worry about trying to make the house functional. I can just decorate the rooms any way I wish.

This house though does have an extra area that we can see.

As with many Gottschalk dollhouses this one has a door to the attic. For an adult this space is not much good for anything but storage, and even that is not very convenient for larger hands.

But a child could put furniture in here and have a maid's room or a nursery. 


Don't you just love the painted windows on the side. They are on the opposite side as well. This sides are grey and the painted windows appear to be intact, so I guess this is the original paint colour.
This was the third dollhouse I had in the car last July when I returneed from Pennsylvania after picking up my Tynietoy Townhouse and my Christian Hacker dollhouse.

I have finally gotten around to blogging it. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Hugs,
Susan

23 comments:

  1. Susan, it is enchanting. I agree with you about the decoration 'improvement' attempts and hope that you will find suitable papers to fix it.

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    1. Thanks. I am sure I can find repro papers for the inside. I just need to figure out what will look best, and is like the original. I am looking forward to the research.

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  2. Hello Susan,
    What a great post. The house is stunning and you chose just the right furniture...it works so well with the look and feel of the house.
    Hugs,
    Giac

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    1. Thanks Giac! I love it when a room setting works out. I have a lot of items that aren't in any dollhouses yet, but I have the most fun trying things out and seeing what works.

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  3. Your decor details are impeccable. I can imagine tiny hands doing all sorts of little things with the attic space. This makes me wonder who, what, where and when this house was so loved in the past. Ain't Pennsylvania a dandy place with all the old goodies? I have a 1920’s USA wood house that came out of a barn in Penn. I can sense your happiness with this lovely old gem. Cheers!

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    1. Thanks Amy! I wish I knew the history of this house. Pennsylvania is a great place to find antiques of all kinds. I love having the opportunity to spend the day in Adamstown where there are dozens of antique shops. When are you going to blog your PA house?

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  4. It's a beautiful house and I like the furniture you have chosen for it.
    Bye Faby

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  5. What a wondeful dollhouse, I love it!! Gorgeous inside and outside! hugs

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    1. Hi Paky. I haven't heard from you in a while. How are things?

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  6. Yes, I enjoyed the tour in the house very much. It is a very special house. I like it and the way you furnished ist.
    Greetings from Lil in Sweden.

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    1. Thanks Lil! I had a lot of fun furnishing this house. Love you blog!!

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  7. I am glad you found a place for the magazine rack. It was fun to make and looks great with your beautiful period furniture! I will look thru my books and see if I can find any pictures of houses similar to yours. I am looking forward to seeing your progress. It's a great house and project.

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    1. Thanks Troy. I love the magazine rack. I have a feeling it may show up in other room settings in future posts. It is the exact style that appeals to me and fits well with a lot of my furniture.

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  8. Love it!I bet you feel just like the doll in white with blue and red ribbon pirouetting through the house with glee. C

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    1. In fact I pirouetted so much I fell right out of the dollhouse. LOL. I couldn't get the doll to put her arms down. They do not have the usual wires in them to allow different poses.

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  9. Yes this is a Gottschalk. It is in the reprint of the catalog, you can see a picture of the page of the book it is on in this eBay listing
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-1912-GOTTSCHALK-2-STORY-WINTER-PROJECT-/271144675784?pt=US_Dolls_Bears_Toys&hash=item3f217b69c8&_uhb=1

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    1. Thank you so much! I see fron the catalog picture of my house that is is in much better condition than I thought. I n fact it is very close to original. It is so great to have confirmation of its manufacture and age.

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  10. It's a fantastic house! I really like it
    hugs
    Magad

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    1. Thanks so much. Your new dollhouse is fantastic too!

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  11. A lovely house, just like its' owner, and wonderfully decorated!!
    My mind is with CM as I too thought the lady of the house was pirouetting with glee at her beautiful house!

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  12. Hi Susan, I am the person that "improved the house". When I bought it the whole inside was painted metallic gold! I ordered the replacement windows and wallpaper from Angel's Attic in California. This was my first attempt at restoring a dollhouse. When I first saw the house I just loved it! The house was painted ALL white outside (yes the windows etc.) Everything! Plus it had a more modern addition affixed to the back. I spent many months getting the house to look the way it does. I was very happy with the results. I always believed it to be a Gottchalk as the penciled number underneath and it has so many of that company's characteristics. I sent a lot of my collection to Noel's for auction as I just don't have the time to devote to it anymore. When you redo the inside I would love to see the pictures.
    Kay

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    1. Thanks Kay! I am so happy you let me know. You did an excellent job on the restoration! And you have answered a number of questions I had about the house, like why the windows don't match the catalogue picture and why the exterior seemed so faded.
      I see now that you improved the house much more that the previous owner did. I wondered why it had those replacement pieces of wood on the back of the house.
      I love this beautiful house, but I passed it along to my sister, who also collects dolls and dollhouse. I have more dollhouses than I can manage and she will take good care of it. As well, I added a different Gottschalk (of the same time period) to my collection and I don't have space for both.
      I had planned to make color copies of wallpaper and floors from old Gottschalk houses to redo the inside of our house, but I don't think that will happen now.
      I would love to hear more about your collection past and present. It was so nice of you to send along this information.

      Thanks,
      Susan

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