Middle class parlour from the Gründerzeit era circa 1890

I found this lovely antique parlour suite in the Sonneberg area of Germany when I was there last spring.  It is one example of the myriad of beautiful toys and dolls that were made in that area for more than three centuries.

There was a doll festival in the Sonneberg area last May and for four days the most amazing items were offered for sale.

Dealers from all over Europe set up sales tables with the most incredible treasures. It was doll house heaven!

This lovely 9-piece parlour has enamel decorations on several of the pieces. Unfortunately the four larger chairs are missing theirs. Still, it is a beautiful and rare set.

I found a picture of a very similar set of furniture in a German dollhouse book and they were referred to as "a middle class parlour from the Grunderziet era circa 1890"

The term Gründerzeitstil refers to a predominant architectural style from 1850 until 1914. In historical context different decades are often also called Gründerzeit. For this reason, the term Gründerzeit is used to refer to several periods; for example 1850-1873, 1871–1890, sometimes 1850–1914 for the architecture, or even just the years 1871–1873.

I bought the wonderful china coffee set from the same dealer. I fell in love with it. It is very delicate and so beautiful.

All of the pieces have blue beautiful flowers, gold edging, and the plates are monogrammed.


The furniture is a large 1/12th scale. I will need a large room to display it to the best effect. I haven't found the right setting yet, but I hope to be able to show you it in place soon.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the pictures of it on my living room floor.

BTW, the carpet under the table in the first picture is a fancy tapestry matt I found in the gift shop of Princess Sissi's palace in Vienna. I think it suits the set.

Bye for now.

Hugs,
Susan

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!

Blossoms

I haven't been able to blog for a while, so until I get some new pictures to share I am posting pics from Daphne's and my adventure - our road trip south to find spring (and dollhouses).

We have been home just over a week now and spring has found us. I have blossoms on the trees in my back yard and leaf buds on the trees in the front. They are lovely.

All pictures shown here were taken in Washington, DC's tidal basin on Easter Monday. The temperature was 80+ degrees. We got there just in time to see the cherry blossoms before they disappeared.

Enjoy,

Hugs,

Susan