Sunday, April 25, 2010

A Modern Dollhouse....now on eBay


A couple of weeks ago I was looking through some old dollhouse stuff I had from when I was trying to decide how to build my daughter's dollhouse, and I found this article from Woman's Day magazine dated October 1976. (yeah, I have a hard time throwing stuff away).   

This dollhouse was designed by Ira Grandberg, A.I.A., and at the time this article was published, it was being presented to the Museum of the City of New York to become a part of their famous dollhouse collection.


The roof and the bedroom wing lifts off for easier play. The article says that with this dollhouse children play in "right now" or even "when I grow up" time as opposed to "once upon a time" in a reproduction dollhouse.

Plans for this dollhouse were not offered for sale in the article, or perhaps my daughter would have had one of these! It is a large dollhouse sitting on a base of 47" x 49" and 2 feet high, the scale being one inch to one foot.

The interior design was by Marilyn Budnick-Wein.  The article gives hints and a few instructions on how you can make the furniture shown.

These are great....
but I think Oese has them beat!!

Well, guess what's listed for auction on eBay this week...............



Evidently plans were sold for this contemporary dollhouse, possibly at the museum to which it was donated. The auction states that a dollhouse of this design was built in 1976 and presented to the Museum of the City of New York and is part of their famous dollhouse collection. Has anyone seen this 33 year old beauty at the museum?


Ebay item is 200463543993 and listed as pick-up only.

Rear view with pergola added.

This is a great house...

I hope it goes to a good home!

36 comments:

  1. I have been hearing about this house on a few blogs, and I really appreciate all the pictures here -- thanks! I think the $850 price tag is pretty steep...I wonder if it will sell?

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  2. Lovely house and thanks for the photos!! As I really love modern dollhouse, but the price is a bit high!!! I wish I could!!
    Meli

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  3. Hoarding definitely has its uses!
    How great to see the article and know the name of the designer, as well as seeing photos of a dolls house built to the plans. Lucky person who lives nearby, has enough room for the house and a large bank balance!
    When Kaleidoscope Houses often go for this amount, it doesn't seem so much for another modern architect designed dolls house that's 30+ years old and even rarer - just way out of my price range (and geographical range too) ...
    I wish callsmall or annina or ModernMC or another modern dolls house blogger could buy it, though - the possibilities for photographs with light through all those tall windows and skylights makes me think we should all club together and put in for it, just to see the results!

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  4. What a great house.. if only.....

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  5. Thanks for posting this article! The Shopping Sherpa was going to scan photos of this dollhouse that were in "Dolls' Houses" by Olivia Bristol and Leslie Geddes-Brown for me, and mentioned she thought it was in Woman's Day. I have been searching to find it and am SO GLAD to see it here. THANK YOU THANK YOU. What a great read, the articles give great tips on making the modern furniture and accessories.

    Above the description of the GARDEN CORNER it says "For information on ordering the complete instructions and diagrams for house and furnishings, please turn to page 141."

    Is there any chance you can scan page 141 for more details on what I could try to search to hunt down the plans for this house? Thanks again, it's so cool seeing more of this house.

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    1. I wish I could find information on how to get the plans for the dollhouse, because i ordered the October 1976 issue and it is not in there. I would hope some one can help me.

      thanks DJ

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    2. I wish you can scan the page 141 and e-mail it to me. thank you very much.
      DJ

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    3. DJ... I never contacted Mr. Greenberg at that time because I am just not into modern dollhouses. But I did some google searches and came up with this information for you from MiniDork's blog here http://modernminihouses.blogspot.com/2010/07/thank-you-jean-and-mini2b.html . She was able to get the plans from a nice person named Jean who offered to email .pdfs to anyone who wanted them. This is from 2010 but you can still try to contact her at ballroom16@aol.com. Good luck!

      DJ...all the pages I have from the article are included in this blog. I cannot email you since I do not have your email address...I can only respond thru this site. Please use the info I gave you in the above paragraph to try to contact the person that had the plans. cheers!

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  6. The first thing I think of is "4 feet by 4 feet". It's a miniature monster but a very lovely house. Very intersting.

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  7. Okay, I second Rebecca's idea of pooling together to assist a local NYer to buy this house just so all of us can see it furnished! Any takers...CallSmall?
    Mini Dork, evidently I didn't read this article any better 30+ years ago as I didn't save the page with the instructions for ordering. I'll post a request on a dollhouse club site I belong too, or you might try the Museum of the City of New York. Also, with all the straight lines and angles, it shouldn't be too hard to cut a model out of cardboard (like Oese does) and proceed from there. 4th idea is to contact the current publisher, Hachette Filipacchi Medias, 1633 Broadway, NY NY. Elizabeth Mayhew or Carlos Lamadria are listed as officers. The request for a dollhouse plan they made available in 1976 might be a good human interest article for their long running mag. Sorry I don't have the info.

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  8. It is big and it is expensive but, it is a great house isn't it. I love the skylights and the big windows.

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  9. Florine,
    Mini2b may have just found the original magazine. When it arrives next week, she'll check the page for ordering info and we'll see what we can track down. Thanks for all of the leads to look for it. Best, Megan

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    1. Florine, I wish I could contact with the information on how to get the magazine, so i could get the house plans. thank you. Ms D.J.

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    2. To Florine, I order the magazine and the dollhouse nor the plans are in there. What magazine are you speaking of. Could you please contact me, and let me know where you found it.Thank you.

      DJ

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    3. DJ... I never contacted Mr. Greenberg at that time because I am just not into modern dollhouses. But I did some google searches and came up with this information for you from MiniDork's blog here http://modernminihouses.blogspot.com/2010/07/thank-you-jean-and-mini2b.html . She was able to get the plans from a nice person named Jean who offered to email .pdfs to anyone who wanted them. This is from 2010 but you can still try to contact her at ballroom16@aol.com. Good luck!

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  10. Megan, that's great news! When this article was published, I had a newborn that was facing surgery so I am sure that's why I missed keeping the order page.
    I'll keep my fingers crossed that the plans will be found!

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  11. Well, the NY Museum cannot retrieve the article; a copy of Woman's Day October 1976 does not have the article; it is in the mid-October 1976 issue; my library has digital copies of the magazine, dating back to January 1977!! But I have a few other options so stay tuned; I am determined to find the plans.

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  12. WOW! What a great house! Sure wish I had lots of money! Hope someone finds the plans!

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  13. Well, I found the plans for this house by asking Mr. Grandberg!! He sent me the following response: "Your e-mail is timely in that I have been looking into "re-introducing" the plans to the market. I'll look into the logistics of establishing a mailing package and its related out-of-pocket costs. Thanks for linking me into the blog-very exciting! If you wish to contact the blog and pass on my information, I have no problem." He requested that "contact be thru my web-site @ www.grandbergarchitects.com." So if you are interested in the plans, let him know.

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    1. mini2b, I am interested the house plans,please contact me for that information if you get an answer from Mr. Grandberg. Thanks



      DJ

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  14. GREAT WORK mini2b! As you see I have listed the information on my blog. I hope Mr. Grandberg does follow thru and sell the plans for this wonderful house...maybe he will design even more houses for the wonderful world of dollhouse collecting!

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  15. i cant wait to get a dollhouse of my own...but thats after I move to a bigger house myself!

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  16. What a dream of a miniature house, no wonder it is in the museum

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  17. I also know why it is high priced because I am designing a modern house and it is very compicated to design. This house was made years ago and is very involved design wise and contains many panels that had to be thought out, drawn on plans and cut out and then probably redesigned and cut out again. It probably took many hours and days to construct.
    And now one copy of this miniature house is in the museum.
    This is not a dolls house it is a miniature house.

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  18. Wow! I really love this dream house! I would love to have one of my own....one day soon.

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  19. OMG. This is so wonderful. I worked on this with Ira for Woman's Day. The plans were mail order; owned and produced by the publisher. I just spoke to the editor who was in charge of this project and asked that she inquire about getting it reprinted. Stay tuned and thanks for all your kind words about this timeless doll house. mb

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  20. My dad built this dollhouse for me in 1976-77. I have the dollhouse and the plans. The dollhouse is intact and in 'needs some updating' shape. Please email me at minniepins at gmail dot com if you are interested. It's time for it to find a new home.

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  21. A very kind lady scanned the plans and put them in her Scribd account.
    More information here: http://www.soulspace.us/2010/12/womans-day-dollhouse-3/

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    1. Great news Mark! But do you have any suggestions as how to access her account to be able to see the plans? Please share with this non-techie!

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  22. Back in 1976, I ordered these doll house plans. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I lost them.

    Wishing I still had them.

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    1. Updated Info from 2013 from another website...."I did some google searches and came up with this information for you from MiniDork's blog here http://modernminihouses.blogspot.com/2010/07/thank-you-jean-and-mini2b.html . She was able to get the plans from a nice person named Jean who offered to email .pdfs to anyone who wanted them. This is from 2010 but you can still try to contact her at ballroom16@aol.com. Good luck!" Try the email address and maybe the offer is still good. Cheers! Florine

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  23. Your articles are inventive. I am looking forward to reading the plethora of articles that you have linked here. Thumbs up! pergola outdoor

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  24. This is gorgeous! I made this in The Sims 4, haha. (You could've expected that).
    I honestly love this dollhouse. Looks so cool. Would be SO nice to live in it.

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  25. found the full size plans and article on scribd if anyones interested.
    be aware that sheet 3 is not sheet 3, you'll have to download the doll ouse plan part 3 instead and join together.
    hope this helps.
    Nick.
    https://www.scribd.com/user/56918019/Jean-Rafenski-Reynolds/uploads

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  26. You are so kind to share this information with the readers....especially since there was so much interest generated from this post. I eventually joined Scribed and downloaded the plans. They now are available in the upper right hand corner under PAGES...see PLANS for a Dream of a Dollhouse to Build. Cheers to you!

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