Fairy Princess Doll Furniture

What little girl didn't dream of being a Fairy Princess...at least for a day

...or for every day she played with this small cardboard doll house furniture 

made in the mid 1930s by The American Crayon Company?

 This company  was one of the premier manufacturers of school art supplies

 and originally grew out of the need for a high quality chalk. 

Gradually absorbing other companies, they produced 

a myriad of other products...like this cardboard doll furniture.

The marketing brochure enclosed with the box was written by 

someone who knew how to pique the interest of the child

...and more important, the parent buying it. Click on the brochure

below to read the marketing skills of the 1930s.

This box contained furniture for a living room, dinette, kitchenette and bedroom, 

although  they did sell  a set of the dinette separately. .

My set was unused, and I did feel a bit guilty when 

punching out the pieces that had stayed so pristine for the last 75 years. 

But the instructions were included so I made a go of it......

Most of the pieces stay together okay, but if intended for a child

 to play with, it definitely needed a touch of glue as suggested.

My favorite room-set is probably the bedroom. 

I love the way the pillows are slanted on the bed just like real bedding.

The red and black living room included matching sofa and chair, 

an end table, a wing back chair, radio, and grand piano. 

The scale of the piano is a bit larger than the rest of the set.

In the kitchen we find a stove and hutch, 

and a table with big wide chairs. No sink, no fridge!

The dinette set, which included candles for the buffet, 

 was a much larger scale than the other 3 rooms of furniture.

Compare the sizes between the kitchenette and dinette sets.

Here are  pictures of the Fairy Princess doll furniture 

in a Play-Time cardboard house made by the Sutherland Paper Company 

about the same time the doll furniture was produced.

bedroom

             

living room

kitchenette

dinette

and a picture of the Play-Time Doll House No. 200 

with removable front panel.....

Zillner's International Dollhouses & Accessories shows an advertisement 

for this house from the 1933 Montgomery Ward catalog. 

The house was furnished with 36 pieces of wood

 Jaymar Happy Hour art deco furniture...and sold for $1.89 complete. 

      Here's my house with Happy Hour furniture.