Showing posts with label 1938 Strombecker dollhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1938 Strombecker dollhouse. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Life in a cardboard house....

 

This is my Strombecker 6-Room Utility Play House A-606 produced in 1938. It's in  fairly good shape for being an 82 year old house made of cardboard....30 point cardboard according to the catalog description. This is the smallest of the cardboard houses Strombecker made in this open front play house design.


This is Harvey and Gertrude Carpenter who live in this cardboard house. 
You can call her Gerty but don't call him anything but Harvey.


Harvey bought the house, but Gerty decorated it to her taste. 
And since it was a Strombecker house, she chose 
all Strombecker furniture....imagine that. 



"Don't ever buy a cardboard house. 
It is all but impossible to open the front door."



"What shall I fix for supper?  Let's see, I have corn flakes 
and an egg frying in the pan. What's in the fridge?"



"Nothing!! There's no back to the fridge! No wonder it's empty!"




"I found this lovely tea set
 on Ebay.....♪♫ I am highest bidder♫♫♪."
Gerty's Ebay feedback is 4769. 


In the evening, while Gerty snores on the sofa, 
Harvey holds his book of Shakespeare's Plays.
He doesn't read it, he just holds it. 


Harvey and Gerty have separate bedrooms. 


              "She also snores in bed."                              "He goes commando in his PJs."



"Nice to have a mirror on my dresser. 
That's one handsome dude looking back at me!" 


"We will see how long he gets to keep that mirror! 
I need it to see my  wavy blonde hair."



"It's so hard to shave while looking into a cardboard mirror."


"I am so glad I selected a Strombecker toilet! 
If the lid lifted, I would probably have to clean it!"




The back and sides of the Strombecker house 
where the happily married Carpenters live!


Post Script:

A reader has asked if the furniture was original to this house. My house does not show the original furniture. According to information found in Patty Cooper's The Complete Guide to Strombecker Dollhouses & Furniture 1931-1961, the house was sold to dealers with complete sets of furniture.  Below is a copy of an advertisement in Cooper's book from the Cullum & Borum Co of Dallas showing this house furnished.


Hope this answers my reader's question.