Finding the missing pieces....

When I first saw this house, I wasn't  sure if it was a Keystone of Boston . I ticked off the characteristics of the Keystones....roof, chimney, door, and shutters looked like the ones Keystone produced in the 1940s. But the windows were large and empty while most of the Keystones during that period  had the metal diamond-pane double windows that swung open. But it came to live with me, and for several years sat on the shelf with a blank look on its' face and a bit of Nancy Forbes furniture inside.  

 

Then I saw this house on an auction site with pretty half windows and the original box that indicated it WAS a Keystone of Boston. I was glad that I had guessed correctly! But it still sat on the shelf....unloved...for many more months. Not long after, another collector contacted me through my Keystone dollhouse site telling me she had the same dollhouse and with hers came one of the original card windows. She was able to reproduce the windows/curtains and had them available on her Etsy site, TFTTreasures. Sally not only has the windows, but also the decorative covers for the curved stairs in the 1947-50 dollhouses! I believe she also makes the card insert for the Keystone fireplace for these same era homes, although it is not currently listed on her site.

 

 

  

What a difference finding the missing pieces

makes to this wonderful old dollhouse!

 

  

 

Although all of the original curtains were blue,

Sally makes them in red, green and yellow also!

 

  

 

I had fun decorating it....the furniture is by Strombecker, the lamp is Jaydon and the fireplace is Lynnfield-Blockhouse. I used a permanent black ink pen to create "hardwood" floors like other Keystones of the same time period.  And since I had card curtains, I decided to add card pictures too!

  

 

 

More Strombecker furniture is found in the kitchen...

   

 

 

A chair and side table made by Kage sits in the corner, while the rest of the furniture is Strombecker.  And I finally used the  decorative stitches on my sewing machine...!

 

 

 

and Strombecker in the bathroom also!

  

 

 ...it is so nice to find the missing pieces!

Thank you , Sally!

 

 

 

 







Radios....I have radios, lots and lots of radios!

Children of my generation learned to use their imaginations well because, before TV, the most dominant home entertainment medium was the radio. I remember lying on the floor in front of the radio listening to concerts, musical shows, dramas, comedies, and one that threatened to "catch you in the jaws of a vise". My imagination always made me worry about that one.

These radios were made by Strombecker. All radios on the back row are 1" scale; from the left, the dates of production were 1936, 1938, and 1931. The art deco blue radio, part of their "Modern Design" line, was first marketed in 1938. The table radio was listed in their catalog in 1934.

Other dollhouse radios marketed during that period and later were...

first on the back row left is the US Menasha Woodenware radio from 1934;

US Converse produced this radio as part of their "Realy Truly" dollhouse furniture starting in 1931; the radio last radio on this row was made by UK Barton around 1957.

On the front row is a radio made by US Nancy Forbes circa 1940; US Kage made the second radio from 1938 to 1948; the last radio was  made by US Strombecker in 1942.

Plastic dollhouse furniture became popular after World War II. The 3 radios grouped on the left were made by Renwal. The open drawer housed the phonograph...this is almost an exact replica of the Philco radio that my family had in our living room. I remember when I was old enough to play my colorful cardboard records on the phonograph without supervision. I sometimes see old cardboard records on eBay. :)

The next two radios are almost duplicates...the dark radio was made by US Ideal and the brown one by Canadian Reliable. The only difference is each radio has their brand name posted on the front above the dial. In Zillner's Furnished Dollhouses 1880-1980 she says that "Reliable was licensed by the Ideal Toy Co. to copy some of Ideal's products." That explains the identical radios. The last radio was made by Jaydon during World War II.

Not only did Renwal have a phonograph in the opening drawer, they also had radio tubes and speakers as seen from the back!