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!

Keeping Up With the Joneses

* indicates there is more information at the end of the post

This is the Joneses house, a 1936 Rich Toys Tudor. 

But don't tell the Joneses it's a dollhouse, 

because they think it's a real house. *1

              

And these are the Joneses....

Gerald, Marilyn, Teddy (Theodore), and Butch (Gerald, Jr). 

And of course the dog, Lester (Lestershire).  

They are Caco dolls from Germany. *2

This is the back of the Joneses house, with living room,

 kitchen and dining room on the first floor

and two bedrooms and bath on the second floor.

A stairwell connects the two floors.

Then there is an attic apartment with no access.

 On the first floor we find the living room, 

entry hall, kitchen and dining room.

The living room is furnished with Strombecker DeLuxe 

living room furniture in 1" scale from 1935-36. 

 

The fireplace is not original to the house; 

it is new construction still featured on Ebay. 

I liked that it had stone similar to the outside of the house.

        

The stairwell between the living room and kitchen....

open the front door and right up the stairs! 

No feng shui here.

       

    

Marilyn's first try at antiquing, and my first try at 

straightening a 100 year old flower stand. Fail, Fail.

   The kitchen opens at the back of the stairwell.

This room is furnished with 1" scale 

Strombecker Modern Kitchen furniture from 1938.*3 

One exception is the refrigerator from Strombecker in 1955. 

Another is the hutch, a new product which closely resembles 

the hutch sold with the 1931-33 Stombecker kitchen.

A third is the small cabinet with the red counter that was made in Chicago exclusively for Marshall Field and Company. 

The dining room has 1" scale Strombecker Modern

Furniture from 1938.

The fireplace is orginal to this house 

but was attached to the wall in the living room. 

I added the fire box and hearth.

Located on the second floor are two bedrooms and a bath. 

 The bedroom set is a 1" scale Strombecker 

DeLuxe Bed Room from 1935-36 , all in walnut.

The lamps on the dresser are also from 1935-36. 

The chaise in the corner is unidentified.

   

The stairwell is between the two bedrooms.

I like to add portraits of the family that live in my dollhouses, 

like this one of Butch and Teddy.*4

Opening off the right side of the stairwell 

is the room that Butch and Teddy share. 

In the bedroom are Schoenhut beds from 1928 

and a German dresser from the same period.

The German dresser is similar to the one produced 

by Schoenhut in 1928, but larger in size. 

The Schoenhut beds came with the original pink print mattresses. 

This model of Schoenhut bed measures 5¼" long, 

while the almost identical German bed 

made in the same era measures 6½" long. 

The bathroom is found to the right of the middle bedroom. This colorful Strombecker bath furniture was part of the 1931-33 production line. 

It is referred to as colorful, swirled, or embellished

....having gold swirls over the green paint. 

      

I added the circular shower curtain and rod to the bathtub

to cover up my mismatched tiled wallpaper. Mea culpa.

Marilyn has added a cozy lounging nook to the bath area

with a Stuart Perfume Novelty "Sa-Chaise" for seating.*5

In the attic space is a 4 room apartment that houses the parents of Gerald Jones. 

Alas, there is no connecting staircase to the apartment.

 Good thing they are just dollhouse dolls.

The bright yellow and green kitchen, 

where Grams makes her chocolate chip cookies, 

has a German table and chair set from 1940s,

 a Strombecker sink from 1931-33, 

a Schoenhut Dining Room small buffet from 1930, 

and a Strombecker fridge and stove from 

the Deluxe Kitchen of 1935-36.

And Polly the parrot.

Strombecker end tables and radio, German red-stain sewing stand 

and sofas and chair with a European vibe.*6

In Furnished Dollhouses 1880s-1980s by Zillner and Cooper, 

the same desk chair is identified as being very similar

 to pieces thought to be made by Gottschalk. *7

A German dresser from the 1920-30s is found in the bedroom. 

The bed is unidentified.

Grandad's chair is labeled Scott, while 

Gram's chair was made by Dixie Doll Chair Co. 

The tub and surround is Menasha Woodenware

from 1934-36.*8

The sink, medicine cabinet and toilet 

were produced by Strombecker from 1931-33.

The window casings in this dollhouse are removable. They came in the form of four individual pieces of wood that sloted into the open window space. The silk-screened insert was sloted into narrow groves in the side pieces. One reason why several of the pieces were missing with this house.

and now, when you least expect it, a silly story....

  

 

   

 

Meanwhile in the unaccessable attic....

Hmmm, did we miss a whiff of something between 

boozing and munchies.....

Say goodbye to the Joneses.

Additional information:  

1. This large dollhouse, produced by Rich Toys in 1936,

measures 40½ wide, 16" deep (17½" including front porch),

24½" tall at peak of roof (chimney 28½"). It originally sold for $18.70, a high price for a dollhouse during the Great Depression years. 

2.  German Caco dolls: approximate production dates, 

Dad: 1958, Mom: 1955, Boys: 1945-51

3.  There are 7 interior doors in this house; one of the original doors is missing.

4.  The stairs in Rich houses of 1935-36 were made of thin metal. By 1938 the stairs were made of wood with metal (wire) handrails.

5.  The seat of the "Sa-Chaise" in the bathroom lifted to show an area for Stuart Perfume bottles or sewing notions. 

6. I had one of the sofas and planned to use it in this house then discovered a set of sofa, chair, desk and desk chair on Ebay. The chair/sofas have the design of 1920s European pieces, and suprisingly, the color is not unusual for that period. It is in perfect conditon, but I have not been able to identify this set.

7. I found the chair referred to in Moritz Gottschalk  Dollhouses - Doll Rooms - Kitchens - Stores - Furniture 1892-1931 listed under 1909. 

8.  The electric type heater and waste basket (listed as a hamper) was introduced by Strombecker in 1935 with their ¾ scale bath furniture. The scale appeared in 1938 with the Strombecker New Modern Furniture bath set.

The information on the Strombecker and Schoenhut dollhouse furniture in this post comes from The Complete Guide to StromBecker Dollhouses & Furniture 1931-61 and Schoenhut Dollhouse Furniture 1928-1934, both by Patty Cooper, and published on Blurb.com. 

Information on Caco dollhouse dolls was found on the blog 

https://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com/