Sunday, 13 July 2014

A c1950s Crailsheimer Kitchen...And Another German Kitchen

Two fascinating and very different miniature kitchens are now up for sale on KT Miniatures website.  I have had to undertake a little research in order to attempt to identify them. The first one I am certain is a German c1950s Crailsheimer dolls house kitchen...and it is lovely. It would fit nicely into a 1/12th scale dolls house.
It consists of a wooden all in one unit, with pastel coloured opening doors plus  sliding stripey glass doors at the top. The set also came with a white table. To have real glass doors on a child's toy obviously will not pass health and safety regulations of nowadays....so this is most definitely being sold as a collector's item only.
The long worktop is covered in some sort of red textured paper and is quite attractive.
Am assuming that this little cupboard with a long silver wooden handle is meant to be the fridge.

All the other door handles  are metal. Interestingly, the two "drawer" fronts do not pull out as drawers but instead open as doors - very odd but wonderfully whacky!

This is the first c1950s Crailsheimer kitchen that came into KT Miniatures and they do not come along very often here in the UK. I love this and have kept this in a box for the past two years with every intention of using it within my own collection, but I simply have no dolls house suitable to put it in, so it is time for it to go onto a good home, where it can be appreciated. 

And now to the second kitchen.....
 I am not sure if this is an early 1950s Crailsheimer Kitchen or not.  Can anyone out there help me with identification? It is actually quite a bit bigger than the other kitchen above but not quite sure what scale you would call this...1/10th maybe?
 The unit itself measures 10 3/4" wide x 2 3/4" deep x 7 1/2" high.  I have found some images with certain similarities to early 1950s Crailsheimer kitchens on the internet, but as yet, I have not found one completely identical.
There is one remaining frosted sliding glass door.....obviously should have been two but the other is now long gone. The door is a bit loose and has a tendency to come adrift so needs to be handled with care.
 All doors and drawers open. 
Every door and drawer front have attractive dark wooden handles.The drawer fronts have a beautiful mottled varnished type finish.
The wooden table is finished in the same cream/off white colour as the main unit and it measures 3 1/2" high  - an average 1/12th scale table measures 2 1/2" high so this helps give an indication to the scale.   The table top has a delightful very 1950s mottled finish - looks like some sort of paper covering? The  top has become just a little warped and consequently the legs splay out just a little to, but this is just minor. 
The shelf with towel rail is very distinctive, along with the wooden clock with metal clock face and moving red hands! One of the tiny "tack" hooks underneath the rail is missing, should be three judging by the tiny hole in the middle?
 And finally, there is also a wooden broom with real bristles that accompanies this. Am assuming that it is an original accessory to the kitchen unit, as it certainly fits inside the tall cupboard. 

This second kitchen set has also been stashed away in a box for a couple of years now, along with the other kitchen.  I had every intention of creating a special kitchen room box to display this particular kitchen as I absolutely love it.  But reality has kicked in and I know that I simply will not have the time to do so. So folks, reluctantly I have put this up for sale and hope that someone else can enjoy it more...it does not deserve to sit in a box for another few years!

Needless to say, if anyone out there can definitively identify this second kitchen, I would love to hear from you.

Both these kitchens are now up for sale on the following KT Miniatures web page:

5 comments:

Giac said...

Hello Celia,
I just love these pieces. They are so beautiful and while I love a brand new miniature, these have so much character!
Big hug,
Giac

KT Miniatures said...

Cheers Giac. They are rather lovely arn't they. It was a hard decision to let them go but it would be such a shame for them to sit in a box for another couple of years. Celia

jenann said...

What a pity you have run out of time. My problem is always running out of space but this last little kitchen is so very tempting... what a great scale!
Jenni x

KT Miniatures said...

Hi Jenni. Well...it is not necessarily time but it would be such a shame if these lovely items just sit in a box untouched for another few years. I would love to keep so many of these old treasures but it is simply not possible. Lack of space is also a problem here....as it is with many of you vintage dolls house collectors out there...haha! Celia

FastGenerations said...


These vintage kitchens are captivating! The attention to detail and history behind them is intriguing. They'd make a unique addition to any collector's showcase. Hamiltonstonedesign