Please Help Save Dolls Houses Past & Present!

Many of you, particularly the vintage dolls house collectors amongst you, are probably already aware of the wonderful dolls house website:  
www.dollshousespastandpresent.com  

But...it is now in need of your urgent help!

Since 2009 it has grown from small beginnings into an enormous website containing valuable free information about a vast array of dolls houses and contents. Although it touches on modern reproduction dolls houses, much of the website deals with the older dolls houses, both antique and vintage. The photographic galleries are fantastic, as not only does it have comprehensive databases on G&J Lines and Tri-ang dolls houses, but there are literally dozens and dozens of galleries containing private collectors own dolls houses, including furniture and accessories of all kinds. They have provided a free quarterly online magazine for many years, crammed with fascinating dolls house related articles written by people from all walks of life, and from all around the world. And there has been a lively forum, with people on hand to give advice freely, plus much more! 

But now......

in recent times the website has been suffering from mega technical problems and web host difficulties. Occasionally on some days people cannot access it at all, such are the problems!  Slowly more and more features are ceasing to work and the website is grinding to a halt. So Rebecca Green, the intrepid Australian owner of the website, and her band of administrators, have decided that it is time to move onto new horizons and a brand new website with modern day technology that can offer all the facilities that are needed. But it comes at a cost! As Dolls Houses Past & Present is not a business, has no income, has no external advertising and wants to continue to remain as so, with free website access to all,  the substantial costs for a website of this magnitude needs to be raised.

So...Rebecca and her administrators, who give up their time freely to run the website, have set up a crowdfunding page on Fundrazr to raise this money. You can donate by clicking on the following link:

CLICK HERE

Every single donation, no matter how small, will help to save a truly wonderful website that is basically a huge archive documenting dolls houses of the 19th and 20th centuries, completely free to everyone. I have just looked at the above page and at the time of writing this, can see the total has already risen to £2887 from 75 contributors, which is fabulous. But that is still only 29% of the total amount that is needed. 

So folks, please do help us all save the wonderful Dolls Houses Past & Present website if you can.

Thank you.

Celia

Lovely Photos Of Jane's Completed Workshop Project!

Followers of KT Miniatures may remember earlier in the year I had promised that if anyone who came to my 2018 workshops sent photos of their completed project, I would show you on here....with their permission of course! 

Well....here we are!

Jane Sharp was one of the lovely ladies who attended the May workshop. During her time with us, she had mentioned that she was just about to have a knee operation, and that she was looking forward to carrying on with the project during the few weeks of recuperation, following her operation.  

 A couple of weeks after Jane's op' she emailed to say that she had been able to get going with her project as planned and sent some photos of the project in progress. She had managed to paint the tiled effect floor, and chosen to have a mixture of blue and white tiles.  She had mixed a pale blue paint with a dark blue paint, in order to get the shade that she wanted.  I agree with Jane that very oddly,  the floor looks like it is black and white in the photos, but it is most definitely blue. Jane said that she took it slowly and carefully, and although there was a bit of touching up to do, she was thrilled with result. I think it looks super!

The tiled effect floor can be quite tricky as the paint has a tendency to bleed underneath the masking tape sometimes, no matter how carefully the paint or indeed the masking tape is applied. But any "bleeding" can be easily rectified by "touching up" with the relevant colours using a tiny brush.

Above you can see that Jane had made good progress with her kitchen range whilst she was actually at the workshop. 

And here is the finished kitchen range...it is brilliant. The reproduction blue/ beige Delft type frieze was part of the project and Jane is delighted with how the colours of the frieze and floor go together well. 

Jane had also finished creating and constructing all the furniture which were part of the workshop project. 

And now...just a few more weeks further on, Jane sent me photos of the finished project, with all the furniture painted and accessories created. 

Isn't it amazing!!!!! 

She has also added some of her own bits and bobs in varying scales that she has been collecting for this project. 

In the antique toy German kitchens of the early 1900s the contents would have been in different scales, and I personally love to see  the varying scales combined in antique/vintage style miniature settings - it adds authenticity and character to the overall effect.

Jane said that she thoroughly enjoyed making this project and adds...."it is amazing what you can do with wood, card, paint and some lovely accessories". 

Well...it has given me great pleasure to see such a stunning example of this workshop project created, it really is beautiful.  I am very grateful to Jane for allowing me to share her photos with you and hope that you have enjoyed taking a peek too. 
  

If you CLICK HERE you can see full details of the workshop project and more photos. I hope to bring you details of KT Miniatures 2019 workshop project later this year. 

Celia

Four Interesting Little Antique German Items For Your Dolls House...

Just listed to KT Miniatures website over the past few days are four antique  metal items, all believed to be of German origin and all equally interesting but quite different from each other. These are currently for sale at the time of writing this blog. 

Antique Miniature Oil Heater

First up is this little antique metal heater, of the portable kind. There is such conflicting information put out there on the internet with regards to this particular item and it is origin, and must not be confused with the more modern reproduction model of this type of heater. This is genuinely old and came with an antique dolls house from the early 1900s. 

It has no makers mark or country of origin mark anywhere that I can find, but the consensus of opinion is that it originates from Germany from the early 20th century. In the olden days, a real life size heater of this kind could be taken from room to room, as required. 

This comes in original condition, painted in a black and silver finish. There is a movable handle, and this is all fully intact. It stands at a height of 2 3/8" high. 

c1930s German "Anfoe" Vacuum Cleaner

This is a genuine antique miniature vacuum cleaner from the 1930s, marked GERMANY underneath. 

Wonderfully the manufacturers name ANFOE is printed in red lettering at the top of the original black material bag. 

This item is in a reasonably good played with condition, although there is a considerable loss of black paint from the handle.

An added nice touch is the red triangular symbol that is just about still present on the front of the vacuum cleaner. 

c1920s/30s German Miniature Alarm Clock

This is a great favourite of mine. I already own one, so this second example has been put up for sale. 

This is a tiny metal alarm clock, with original paper clock face (albeit a little brown from natural aging), and the original celluloid clock face cover.

On the back it is marked GERMANY and there are some delightful moulded details. Isn't it fabulous!

All these three items can currently be seen for sale on KT Miniatures General Page: 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Large Scale Antique German Cutlery Basket & Cutlery

Here is an antique metal and blue mesh cutlery basket, with 17 pieces of metal cutlery.

This set comprises of six spoons and forks, and five knives, so presumably there is one knife missing?

What is delightful is that every single piece of cutlery is marked GERMANY. 

This is large in scale, more like doll size but would suit an old dolls house where scale does not matter. It can currently be found on KT Miniatures Kitchen Page: 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW