We all love collecting these wonderful dollhouse kitchens, nursery and bath furniture pieces. And it certainly shows when they come up for sale on Etsy or an Ebay auction.
The early kitchen,
with a broiler grill below the oven and small ice compartment with removable ice tray.
Later kitchen, remodeled,
with broiler grill and ice tray.
The table and chairs also received a remodel.
Kitchen cabinets: three wall cabinets, corner cabinet,
cabinets with door and drawers, plus a broom closet.
The broom closet included a mop and broom.
This broom closet was sold at Marshall Field & Co.
Bath fixtures.
Nursery furniture found in pink and blue.
Blue nursery furniture courtesy of Patty Cooper.
Most articles and sale listings seem to indicate this furniture was made by Chestnut Hill Studios. Chestnut Hill Studios recreated fine antique miniatures representing periods in the history of American furniture including Colonial, Federal, Empire, Shaker, and Victorian. Their designs were based on real examples found in reference books, museums and private collections. I have seen the above pieces referred to as Chestnut Hill Studios "early chunky pieces".
This is the back cover of a Grandmother Stover's 1950 catalog:
The following information is from Patty Cooper's book, Grandmother Stover's Doll House Miniatures: " Four room boxes were shown on the back cover, but no description of the rooms or their contents was provided. "
Patty shares that the same room boxes reappeared in Stover's 1977 catalog, described as made "by Mr. Stover in the forties for the children's museum of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts...All of the furnishings were in the Grandmother Stover line at that time, but there are many that for economic reasons cannot be made today."
Also in the 1977 Stover catalog was this information, "The very solidly constructed wooden nursery and kitchen furniture was made in Chicago exclusively for Marshall Field & Company."
Evidently this furniture was popular enough that other companies were able to add this line to their catalogs. Grandmother Stover's Doll House Miniatures tells us that similar kitchen and bathroom furniture was later sold in the 1955 Chestnut Hill Studios catalog. As late as 1962 it was advertised in Mark Farmer mail order catalogs. For reasons unknown, I have never seen it referred to as Mark Farmer Furniture.
This advertisement is from a 1961-62 Mark Farmer Co. Winter catalog showing the bathroom and kitchen furniture. The kitchen pieces include a base cabinet with four drawers and one door that opens. I haven't located this particular piece....I hope you have!
By sharing this information, I am hoping that a family member, friend, relative, or former employee of the maker of this furniture will come forward to identify the person or company. To give credit to the original place the furniture was sold, I will refer to it as Marshall Field furniture.
I purchased these pieces assuming they were made by the Marshall Field furniture company. When comparing these pieces to the furniture listed at the first of this post, I found several differences.
The two center pieces are Marshall Field furniture.
The unknown brand (bottom) is smaller than the MFf and the burners are enclosed from the stovetop.
The counter top on the MFf cabinet (right) is a separate piece, while the maker of the unknown cabinet simply painted the top of the cabinet. The knobs on the two cabinets are also different.
The paint on the unknown pieces is inferior.
The unknown stove does have the broiler grill.
Unknown broiler grill on the left.
Were these dollhouse items imported pieces?
Judit Armistead, of The Doll Works, has graciously shared copies of pages from her 1951 and 1953 Chestnut Hill Studios catalogs showing the Marshall Field furniture.
This is from the 1951 Chestnut Hill Studios catalog,
kitchen furniture from the 1953 catalog,
nursery furniture from the 1953 catalog,
The back cover of Grandmother Stover's 1950 catalog shows four room boxes, two show the Marshall Field furniture. Talented dollhouse collector Beth Wilson recreated the room boxes and these are shared in Grandmother Stover's Dollhouse Miniatures. Below are the Stover Rooms and Beth Wilson's delightfully recreated rooms.
A curiosity here....the two cabinets to the right of the sink fit the images that I questioned if they were actually MFf produced or import copies. It is possible that Grandmother Stover sold both original and imported copies.
Beth Wilson's recreated kitchen.
Beth Wilson's recreated nursery.
This wonderful dollhouse furniture, produced during the middle of the last century, was sold at Marshall Field & Company, and appeared in Chestnut Hill Studio catalogs,
Mark Farmer catalogs and Grandmother Stover catalogs.... leaves me wondering just who made it.
If you have any information that could help identify the maker of this wonderful vintage dollhouse furniture, please contact me at florinebettge@comcast.net.
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