I love finding vintage toy catalogs even if they are reproductions. Yesterday's mail brought a reproduction of a Tootsietoy wholesale catalog from 1933. Of course it was filled mostly with little trucks and cars, but the best page of all was the one showing this little cardboard house. It is actually 5 individual room boxes that came free with the purchase of a full room set of furniture from their 1930 line. A little girl or boy could build a complete house if they were able to convince their parents to buy each room.
Dowst Manufacturing Co. called this the Add-A-Room Doll House. The catalog explains that it was made of heavy container board in contrasting colors to the furniture and was included FREE with each set of Tootsietoy Doll House Furniture.
Here is the little house. No mention if part of the roof was include with each room box.
The living room with the furniture set....and an explanation of what came in the set.
I wonder if the front porch was included with the living room.
I have the maple dining set but don't think I have seen it in green.
The dining room was placed behind the living room and shared the large door opening.
The door on the south side led into the kitchen.
I have the maple dining set but don't think I have seen it in green.
From the shape of the walls and placement of doors and windows, I think the kitchen must have opened on the west into the dining room and on the north to the bath.
My set is a mixture of the two colors available. Lad-a-stool....haven't heard that term before.
The bathroom was placed between the kitchen at the back of the house and the bedroom at the front.
A green or orchid bathroom....
wouldn't todays buyers on House Hunters have something to say about that!
The lovely bedroom with three long windows facing the front of the house, and openings to both the living room and the bathroom.
The music room....those red pianos are gorgeous. I wish I had one. Evidently there was sufficient room in the living area to house the grand piano as there is no indication an Add-a-room was included with the music room.
Dowst listed 3 items of "good news" at the front of this catalog, the first one being that the Add-a-Room doll house was free with the purchase of each set of Tootsietoy furniture.
The other two items of good news were
- Furniture is now made of new alloy with tensile strength five times that of the old..yet lighter. (that was good news I'm sure)
- Finished in harmonious colors----packed in colorful box with pilfer proof display feature. (oh my, sticky fingers back in 1933 also)
and finished with "Order a stock today ... watch them walk off the counter!"
In Antique and Collectible Dollhouses and Their Furnishings by Dian Zillner and Patty Cooper, I found this information: This "Add-a-Room" dollhouse was used to market Tootsietoy dollhouse furniture in the 1930s. Each large box of furniture also included a cardboard room for a dollhouse. The consumer could complete the house by purchasing all the rooms of furniture. There were five rooms in all.
I wonder if any of these adorable little houses still exist today....
