Home Alone....in a 1936 Rich Toys Tudor

This is "The Kent", produced by Rich Toys in 1936. According to Rich Toys Dollhouses 1935-1962, it has all the features which define a group of 1936 Rich dollhouses, including stenciled shrubbery, paper shutters, wooden porch lights, black diamond-paned windows 

and metal reinforcements on the corners and roof. 

"The Kent" is one on the few Rich dollhouses with an opening side door, 

complete with its own roof. 

I had fun with the interior of this little house, adding timbering

 to match the timbering on the exterior of the house. 

 The first floor exterior doesn't have timbering, but my interior does....owner's prerogative!

  The floors were an off-white....I used a thin wash of brown acrylic, 

and then inked in floorboards. 

A lot of the furniture is Barton Tudor....one of my favorites.

This is the home of Francis and Catherine Cavendish 

and their daughters Marian and Bridget.  

I hope the person who made the lovely clothes for Catherine and Francis 

sees them here and knows they found the perfect home!

"Catherine, are you positive it will be OK for Marian and Bridget to be home alone?"

"Gee whiz, Pops, of course it will. Duh!"

"Marian and Bridget, your dinner is in the casserole on the table. 

We will be home late....to bed early and NO shenanigans!" 

"Come, my lovely Catherine, 

I've ordered a carriage to take us to the ball."

"I hope my American Express wasn't maxed out. 

Those Yankees can be difficult at times."

"Wonder what mother left us for dinner?"

"GRUEL!"

"I think this cinnamon cake will make a much better dinner!"

"If I jump anymore, I will throw up! Let's go "mountain climbing"!"

 

"I shinnied up the post, you can at least stretch higher."

"Wonder what mon keeps in these jars?"

"Our little angels!"

This is one of my favorite dollhouses. 

With just four rooms, it was easy to furnish.

I tried to make the furniture as era appropriate as possible.

A Tudor house with running water!

Must add a chamber pot.

Polar bear rug?

Time-traveling dolls....

Time travelers in the toy box also!

 

Some of the furniture identified: 

A small Biedermeier dresser and a Triang Queen Anne wing chair with foot stool. 

You can see a complete collection of this lovely Queen Anne furniture 

on Zoe Handy's Truly Madly Tiny blog. 

Zoe Handy is the editor of Dolls' Houses Past and Present, a great E-mag venue 

for information on dollhouses and dollhouse furniture world wide. 

If you are not familiar with it, check it out....free to join! 

This sofa was unfinished when I purchased it on Ebay.  The design with the nail head tacks, indicting a tufted seat, would put it being produced mid 1920-30s....possibly made in Germany. 

There is a sticker underneath indicating 

it was sold at The White House in San Francisco.

 

The beds are German, circa 1910-20.

The dark stain on these Barton Tudor pieces indicates they are from 

the earlier period of production. 

Barton produced dolls house furniture from 1945 through 1984. 

This information is from Marion Osborne's Bartons "Model Homes":

"the dying process was a nasty job, trying to get the antique look

 and Bartons experimented with various dyes to get the effect.

 Originally they had girls dipping each item into a mixture of dark oak naptha stain,

 which took ages to dry and got everywhere. 

So it's probably a case of not working to exact amounts each time, 

or variations to the dye itself and the result is the difference in colour."

 

Three fireplaces in this Tudor home....far left is Barton Tudor.

It took me a long time to find a stove from the right period that was also the right size....but a great excuse to surf Ebay!  The listing noted that it was purchased in England in 1992 but there is no maker's mark.  The sink is an English production....unsure of who produced it. 

Hope you enjoyed the trip through one of my favorite little houses!