The Little German Style Kitchen With Some Antique & Vintage Contents....

As promised in the last posting on this Journal, here is my little kitchen (the prototype for the impending KT Miniatures workshop) now filled with a few rather lovely old treasures that I have been putting aside specifically to display in it. 

I am chuffed to bits with the results, as the aged ambiance of the room box and furniture make an ideal backdrop for the genuine antique pieces that I have been collecting over a period of time.

The dresser, side table, chair and wall rack are all part of the workshop project. So too the saucepan hanging on the rack, the jug on the chair and the lithographed plates on the dresser - all made from card and based on real antique pieces. Everything else you see in this photo above is antique or vintage. 

Next to the saucepan on the wall rack is an old tin colander, a c1930s T&B frying pan and an odd vintage prong. 

On the side table is a very pretty early 1900s German soft metal tray (fully glazed with real glass) which has a few random pieces of a c1920s/30s German metal art-deco tea set. Antique plaster meat next to the tray and plaster vegetables underneath the table, all help to fill the space.  

On the dresser there is quite an array of antique pieces displayed. 

A great favourite of mine has to be the exquisite early c1900s German green glass/soft metal jug with two matching wine goblets. I have had these for a while but they have been sitting loose and a little lost in my studio display cabinet, as I simply had nowhere else to put them. So it is rather pleasing that they now they have a proper home! Also displayed on the dresser is a  plaster fruit flan, an old white jug and a heavily aged early c1900s decorative wooden plate (ok - it is missing loads of it's paint but I think that adds to the charm).

Underneath is an antique cane picnic basket from the 1920s which I have had for quite some time. Previously it had perched precariously on top of an old wardrobe in one of my old dolls houses, but now it too has a proper home.  The vintage metal oval platter is a mystery and may not be all that old, but I think it looks good as "a filler". In complete contrast, the metal dish with glass food cover standing in front is most definitely an antique, and another favourite of mine. 

Hanging on the wall just left of the dresser is the white salt box, made out of card and part of the workshop project. As a quirk I have added a label on the front saying "salz", which is German for "salt".

The Delft type frieze running around the walls of the room box, has been reproduced from an old fragment and included as part of the project. To the left of the kitchen...as you can see the wall shelf has a couple of utensils and imitation bakeware pieces that are part of the workshop kit, but all the other items are old. 

I have had the large German metal teapot seemingly forever  - it is quite large in scale and possibly late c1800s, but I don't care that it is big...I think it looks rather nice sitting in its new home on top of the shelf. The antique glass jar with stopper right next to it is possibly late c1800s too and also large in scale. The brown glass on the end of the top shelf is Victorian and another of those items that I wanted to keep but didn't have a home for...but it looks fine there now, even if it is dwarfed somewhat by the tall over sized neighbouring bottle! On the lower shelves there is a random assortment of old metal, glass and china pieces crammed together. I need to rummage through my "junk" box and see if I can find even more to cram on there. 

On the old style kitchen range is a c1920 Britains painted lead cooking pot with lid, and a smallish old hallmarked silver (sugar/salt?) spoon, plus next to it is the top half of a Britains steamer ie it looks like a pan with lid, but there are holes in the bottom. I now need to look for an actual Britains saucepan in matching colour! 

As you can see the Britains cookware are all gloriously over sized in scale but I really am not bothered, as I enjoy mixing different scale items in my old dolls houses. My advice to people who are collecting antique and vintage dolls houses is to forget about scale when furnishing and accessorising, but simply collect what you like. That is what the youngsters of the earlier eras would have done with their miniature kitchens....the attention or obsession with regards to scale was not quite the same back then as it is nowadays:) 

I am contemplating creating some old looking kitchen canisters to sit on the shelf of the kitchen range, unless I can find some genuine antique ones. 

On the old looking bench rack, is the round wooden bread board - both part of the workshop kit, so too the saucepan made out of card. The tin tray, white tin pan and metal meat cleaver are all old. 

I am quite pleased how the antique pieces sit so well alongside the handmade pieces. But this is far from finished, oh no sirree...and after the workshops are over, I have further plans for this kitchen...but more about that another day:)

For those of you who are booked to come to either KT Miniatures April 21st or May 19th workshops, then I hope the above photos will help kick start your imagination and help get your creative juices going. For those of you who won't be coming to the workshops, well...I hope you still enjoyed taking a peek. 

If anyone would like to come to either of the workshops, do get in touch asap. Booking for the April workshop is closing this Friday, as I am now working on the kits. 
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

Celia