Arcade Toys for the Dollhouse - A 1920s Kitchen

Recently I have been collecting cast iron toys from the 1920s. This is the kitchen from the Arcade Manufacturing Company of Freeport, Illinois.

There were two kitchen sets shown in the 1929 brochure. An electric kitchen and a gas kitchen. This one is the gas kitchen, but it has the electric sink.

This is the Roper gas range. The electric kitchen had a very similar stove, but it was a Hotpoint brand with electric burners where the gas ones are.

I believe that Arcade produced these toys under license and authorization from appliance and furniture companies. Each piece has a brand name on it.

The electric sink has a built in dishwasher - very advanced for the 1920s. I have not seen the real life equivalent, but it seems to be just a deep covered sink with an electric agitater on the bottom.

Mother and Ethel, the maid, are busy preparing dinner. The dolls are German dollhouse dolls from the 1920s.  The furniture is a large 1/12th scale, and I find it makes the dolls look small. But perhaps they are just petite ladies.

The butter churn on top of the fridge is just like the one my mother had when I was a child. It took some muscle to crank it until the butter was made. A computer keyboard doesn't give one the same kind of muscles.

It looks like the chicken is almost ready. Time to make the gravy,

I also added some Arcade pieces to the kitchen in my large Mystery house.  They are preparing dinner as well.

The Crane sink is in this kitchen and the ice box is an Alaska brand.

The Arcade company was founded by 2 brothers in 1896. Initially, they made spring hinges, coffee mills, and other household items.

1908 they began to make cast iron toy banks, and in 1921, Arcade brought out their first car - a Yellow Cab Taxi, under license and authorization from the cab company. The car was such a huge success that the company began to produce more toy vehicles, farm items and dollhouse furniture.

These toys were advertised as looking just like the real thing. This is the thing I really love about this furniture, Unfortunately most of the pieces suffer from paint loss - they are about 80 years old after all - so I love to find pieces that are in good shape.

I will try to collect other rooms of furniture as well. When I do I will share them. Thanks for stopping by.

Susan

Contents of a 1930s dollhouse

The living room Furniture is Tynietoy with the addition of a red stain side table between the Hepplewhite chairs

The art in the room is stamped Tynietoy.

Recently I was lucky enough to buy the contents of a 1930s dollhouse.

The furniture includes pieces made by Tynietoy,  Schoenhut, Goldilocks, German red stain, and others.

Most of the dining room furniture is also Tynietoy. The small side table is  red stain. The large side table is metal and I can't identify it. Does anyone know what company made it?

On the sideboard are the elusive Tynietoy knife safes. I was so excited to see these i the lot.

The rug is Tynietoy, as are the silhouettes on the wall

The blue bedroom has an interesting bird cage. The wing chair and lounge are Cinderella furniture by the Wisconsin Toy Company,

The blue furniture is Tynietoy.

The nursery has a wonderful Wisconsin Toy nursery set plus a Tynietoy screen and high chair. There are two lead dogs and a wonderful rush cradle with a tiny doll as well as a lovely little doll carriage. The arm Chair is also a Goldilocks piece.

This bedroom set is  red stain furniture made in Germany. The vanity and arm chair are Goldilocks. 

The third bedroom has beds and chairs by Schoenhut. I have not seen the Vanity or wardrobe before. Does anyone recognize them. The paint colour of the whole set matches the beds. Could they possibly be Schoenhut too?

All of these accessories came with the lot. What a wealth of minis.

Playing with the dollhouse - reno time

I found this dollhouse at a thrift store a few years ago for only $5.00. It was the second dollhouse I bought and it started my dollhouse fever and this blog. At that time I went to the local dollhouse store and spent more than $145 on wallpaper and supplies. I had fun working on the inside and I blogged about the house here back in 2009.

This spring I felt like doing something creative so I brought the house in from the garage and repaired one corner of the roof. I painted the outside of the house and the roof.  I had three windows and a door that I had made from House of Miniature  kits.  I had a few pleasant evenings painting those and installing them in the house. They improved it immensely.

I found some fake flowers at the dollar store and discovered that I could unravel them from their wire stems to make perfect mini flowers. I filled the flower boxes and even made little floral trees for each side of the front door.

I added a decorative fence and, viola, and old beat-up dollhouse had new life.

I hand-painted the shutters and was quite pleased with the effect.

I had wallpapered the four main rooms of the house back in 2009, but the attic was bare. I put in a small dividing wall and made the attic into a nursery and a bathroom with new wallpaper.

The maid just took a pie out of the oven.

I added 1950s tin pieces (stove, sink, fridge and Hoosier cupboard) to the kitchen. The red table and chairs are also Strombecker.

I used the same Strombecker furniture in the living room, bedroom and dining room that I had in the house six years ago. I love the way this vintage furniture looks in the house and the scale is perfect.

The Schoenhut shower is so cute.

The wooden furniture in the nursery and bathroom was made by Schoenhut in the 1920s, but the chaise lounge is Wisconsin furniture.

 I made the leafy plants out of masking tape over floral wire and then painted the leaves. That was fun. I plan to make more.

I am very pleased with my upgraded house. I think it looks great now and I had such fun doing it!

Bleuette Art Deco bedroom

This wonderful bedroom set appears to have been handmade for some lucky little girl many decades ago.

I have been meaning to blog about this bedroom set for a while now.

The problem was that I had it packed away. I am trying to organize my doll collection, so I am pulling bins and boxes out of various closets and storage spaces. What an overwhelming mess! I have to sort everything and categorize it before I can put things away again. Yikes!

This set is a perfect size for the famous French Bleuette

I bought this sweet doll thinking she was a Bleuette, but I cannot match her markings to that elusive girl. She is one number off, so she may be a sister. She was made by the SFBJ organization in Paris circa 1920s.

I feel that the set was made in the 1920s or 1930s. The craftsmanship is beautiful. The dolls are about 10 inches high, so I suppose the scale is just under 1/6th.

Bleuette's friend is also from Paris. I got her there when I went in 2012 to stay with CM. She was a less inexpensive doll than the fully jointed Bleuette. I blogged about Bleuettes in the Musee de la Poupee in Paris here.

Bleuette seems happy with her room. She has real eyelashes and cute little teeth.

Nap time.

All the doors and drawers work. The set is beautifully constructed

Room for the chamber pot. I guess each girl has their own

I love the little design extras like the cut-outs in these pieces.

All ready to add clothes.

The mirror still reflects after 80+ years