Tuesday 30 November 2010

Tri-ang CEX Kitchen & Bathroom Fixtures

If you have a vintage Tri-ang CEX dolls house, you may be interested to know that just listed for sale on KT Miniatures are some plastic furniture fixtures from a Tri-ang CEX dolls house. I understand CEX Tri-ang houses were first available in 1958 and then for a few years into the 1960s. These pieces are quite rare in so much as they just don't come along very often and could be very useful to you if you are missing them from your original CEX house.
They were salvaged from  a very sad dolls house that was in dreadful condition and truly beyond repair! I am not in the habit of taking components from lovely vintage dolls houses  I can assure you but do so only when restoration/renovation is beyond hope.


These CEX pieces are quite basic compared to the Tri-ang Spot-On & Jennys Home kitchen and bathroom furniture, nevertheless they do have great charm. As this kitchen unit is moulded plastic, none of the doors or drawers open but I like the nice touch of the grill space on the far left where the cooker is situated.

This moulded bath and sink are fixed onto a red plastic panel and although simple in design are still delightful. The toilet does have a lift up toilet seat and is fully intact which is quite refreshing. In fact the toilet is more rare than the bath/sink unit as the tiny plastic fixing brackets and cistern are reknowned for cracking when removal is attempted from an old dolls house.  This is a common problem with other makes of vintage plastic furniture too, with age the hard plastic becomes more brittle & prone to damage.  

FOR FULL DETAILS GO TO THE VINTAGE 1/16TH TRI-ANG PAGE ON KT MINIATURES

Saturday 27 November 2010

Charming Vintage Dolls House

This charming dolls house has just gone up for sale on KT Miniatures under the OLD HOUSES FOR SALE section. It  has huge potential and whoever purchases this can have great fun with it. Exact age is unknown and possibly originates from the late 1930s but I feel it is more likely to have been created post war 1940s or early 1950s.
It has obviously been homemade but there are some delightful Art Deco features. Just check out those diamond glass decorative doors! The garage is extremely spacious with side window so just imagine what you could do with that alone.
Inside there are homemade wooden old fashioned fireplaces and in each room some wonderful original bakelite light fittings with paper shades!

Whoever purchases this lovely house could have great fun furnishing it with 1/16th scale furniture. Bargain for someone....as it is competitively priced at just £75.00 and would make a great Christmas pressie. Not suitable for children under 14 though. The downstairs fireplace fret is simply made out of cut tin and lethal to little fingers!!!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Some Exquisite Antique Miniatures Just Released For Sale

Every so often I acquire some of the more unusual antique miniature items and have just listed for sale on KT Miniatures some gorgeous & quite rare pieces that just don't come along very often.  It is fair to say that  I have found it painful to let these go and not keep them for my own collection but as I am supposed to be running a business.....go they must!

Both these metal pieces originate from the early part of the 20th century and believed to be German. The gong is very Art Nouveau in style and little coal scuttle has a lift up lid for your miniature coal!


As a child I remember in our cemetery lodge house, we had an ancient 1930s black bakelite phone identical in style to this. Does anyone out there remember how one had to carefully poke ones finger through the relevant numbered hole and revolve the dial right round to the end for each separate digit? Is hard to imagine now with our super duper trendy & instant push button phones! This particular German piece originates from the 1920s/1930s, is metal and a bit larger in scale than the traditional 1/12th scale, however would look fabulous in a vintage dolls house where scale is irrelevant.
And now for this..... not sure what the proper name for it is but I will refer to it as a drinking vessel. I do know that it is German and from the early 1900s. The outer casing is metal and the inner is made of green glass. Considering it's age, is in a wonderful condition.

All these can be found on www.ktminiatures.com on the Living Room/Dining Room page under the Antique 1/12th section. I also have some very old 1920s/30s glass striped tumblers and an antique bread board that have just been listed on the Kitchen page too, with more antique glassware to come!

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Some Little Framed Prints Plus A Bit More Junk Too!

This is the last of my creations to leave the workshop this week as my attention has to turn to other projects for the next few days.  All are suitable to be used in both reproduction dolls houses and vintage dolls houses.

Framed 1930s Landscape Prints


Framed Biblical Prints
Above are a sample of some of the very old prints that have been created inside a black painted aged frame. Others are available too.


These set pieces can be used in a corner of an old attic or outhouse, maybe a spare bedroom or even a charity shop or junk shop. All the items including framed prints, printed boxes, books, magazines and newspapers are from the 1930s era so can be used in settings from the 1930s onwards.

All of these, apart from the Biblical Prints can be found on KT Miniatures website on the General Page under Exclusive Items.
http://www.ktminiatures.com/General.html

Biblical Prints can be found on the Bedroom page under the Exclusive Items.
http://www.ktminiatures.com/Bedroom.html

Tuesday 16 November 2010

A Bit Of Old Junk...Of The Miniature Kind!

Two more mini items to leave the workroom this week are suitable for an old attic, spare bedroom, old outhouse, charity or secondhand/junk shop.

Here is a shabby old washstand and old leather trunk filled with junk and surrounded by boxes and books etc.There is even a pair of child's shoes and a wartime cigarette album in the trunk! I like to pack as much in as possible with a few little bits that may not be obvious at first.
All items are fixed and both the washstand and trunk are being sold as separate set pieces on KT Miniatures website. They can be found on the General Page under the Exclusive Items section.

Saturday 13 November 2010

1940s Hospital Ward Scene Now Complete - Step back in time!

Back in October I featured on here an unusual commission that I had been working on and promised to show you more when the project was complete. Well I am pleased to say it is now finished and my customer was delighted with the result!
There are so many photos that I thought it would be easier to feature it as a slide show....so here we go....from the very beginning as just an empty Victorian smokers cabinet, through all its different stages.... to its completion as a hospital ward based at Xmas in wartime Britain during the 1940s. It was great fun to do!


Special thanks must go to Robin Britton of Coombe Crafts for creating Mr Patient and Miss Nurse http://www.coombecrafts.co.uk/

Hope you like it!



Thursday 11 November 2010

A Few More Handmade 1930s Bits & Pieces

New creations emerging from my workroom this week are yet more vintage books  but this time arranged on wooden wall shelves.




















For the children of the dolls house there are two different kinds of 1930s quoits boards...a "Golly Board" and a "Cartoon Board" along with six loose hoops.



Finally for the residents of your dolls house, there are some old fashioned sofas that have been given a paint effect in order to look like old rexine, complete with moth eaten blankets and slightly dirty throws! Each sofa contains two cushions with a handpainted vintage floral design along with a pile of fixed vintage books and a newspaper. Suitable for the 1930s era onwards.


As with the majority of all my other handmade pieces under the Exclusive Items range, these can be used with both vintage and reproduction dolls houses. All are now up for sale on www.ktminiatures.com

Monday 8 November 2010

Miniature Books Galore Plus A Bit More Besides!

Ok.....have been rather busy these past couple of days creating dozens of miniature 1/12th scale books in a variety of ways, replicas of the life sized books and most of which are new to KT Miniatures. They have now gone up for sale on my website ......and there is still yet more to come! These are suitable for use in both vintage and reproduction dolls houses.

There are some 1930s book cases crammed full with books of various sizes, all fixed into place in a realistic and random way. The wooden bookshelves have been given a dark painted finish, suitable for 1930s era onwards.
There are various sets of five books fixed together, sets of children's books arranged in a variety of ways plus..ok, nothing to do with books but these have also just gone up for sale too.......some 1930s boxed games of Snap and Happy Families based on real games from that era.
All these new creations can be seen under the various headings in the Exclusive Items section on KT Miniatures website: http://www.ktminiatures.com/

Friday 5 November 2010

Aged Bookcase Filled With Books-Raffle Donation

Well ....at long last I am pleased to say that I have been able to get down to making a donation for the Breast Cancer Campaign Raffle, which is taking place next February at Thame Dolls House & Miniatures Fair.

It is an aged wooden bookcase in 1/12th scale, the sort that I have been making for years based on a real 1930s piece of furniture....but the difference is that amongst some of my regular mini books, I have a whole set of 22 mini vintage books fixed on here that you won't have seen before! These replicas of pre-war books I have been able to create from a whole bundle of real life sized vintage books that were specially loaned to me by a great friend. (Thank you Robin!) The bookcase stands at 3 1/2" high and is just 1 3/4" wide, in an aged dark wooden finish - typical of the 1930s.

Very shortly I will be putting up for sale three bookcases similar to the above on KT Miniatures, all in 1/12th scale plus have several other projects with vintage books in the pipeline....watch this space...as they say!

To see the updated page of some of the wonderful raffle prizes already donated to the Breast Cancer Campaign Raffle go to http://www.ktminiatures.com/Raffle.html