Four amazing miniature prams came
in recently, they had all belonged to an avid dolls house collector who sadly
passed away quite some time ago.
The makers mark underneath each pram is quite
distinctive and one that I had never seen before. It consisted of a hand painted "G" and "V" entwined within a large "S", as seen above. After some research, I came across the makers in a two-page article in the June 1996 issue of the Dolls House & Miniature Scene Magazine...Graham and Valerie Selway, who traded under the name of "The Pram Collection".
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Apparently, this South Ruislip
(UK) based couple were renowned for their high-quality 1/12th scale
miniature prams. Graham
Selway had been a coach builder, working mainly in ash and metal. But as
plastic came into use more, sadly the traditional method of coach building was
becoming obsolete. So he took early retirement, and eventually found himself
making miniature prams. Each pram was made out of steel but there was no use of
machinery at all, and every part was made by hand. Consequently it took at least a week between them to produce
one pram. Hence, their stock was limited and demand was high due to their amazing quality, which helped make these
prams so highly sought after. The article stated that at that point (1996) they had
twelve different pram models. It does seem that three out of the four prams that I had here were
amongst those twelve, but the largest of my prams - "The Twin Pram", is not featured on there. Interestingly it mentioned that they were attending the London Dolls House Festival later that year.
This lovely pram
was called “The Edwardian Pram”, dating from 1902 to 1914. It was snapped up
immediately before I even had chance to properly photograph it…so only have one
photo for you. The steel body is painted in black with two shades of green
stripes down each side. The leather hood with the aid of metal hinges could be
pulled up or down. The interior was lined with white fabric and the quilted
mattress was fixed. There was a turned wooden handle at each end, with black
painted metal undercarriage and four large black painted metal wheels.
According to the
1996 article, this pram was called "The Royal Pram". It was modelled on an actual UK pram that was around from c1935 to c1955.
The pram body is
made from steel and as mentioned above, comes in a light beige painted finish
with additional dark brown and white shaped decoration along the two sides. The
retractable hood is made from dark brown leather, lined with white fabric and
edged in brown braid. The interior of the pram is lined with white leather, and
the fixed leather mattress base is “button” quilted.
The wheels are made
from metal strip with actual rubber tyres. This model even has a wonderful
sliding braking mechanism, how fantastic is that! Unsurprisingly, this was also snapped up quickly, as soon as it went up for sale on the website.
The third pram is
this magnificent “Twin Pram”, for some reason this did not appear in the
article so am wondering if it may have been made after the article was written?
This style pram may predate WW2 but would at the very least have been around in
the 1950s. The pram body is made from steel and comes in a black painted finish
with additional cream and silver crescent shaped decoration along the two
sides.
The two folding
hoods are made from black leather, lined with white fabric and edged in
black/white braid. It has the same working metal hinges as on the other prams,
enabling the hoods to be pulled up or down. The interior of the pram is lined with white
leather, and the fixed leather mattress base is “button” quilted.
The large wheels
are made from metal strip with white rubber tyres. This model even has a long
push/pull brake with black handle that really works.
Underneath on each
side you can see there are two buckled leather body suspension straps, which
sums up the amazing attention to detail this pram was given! At the time of writing this post, this is the only pram that is currently available to purchase.
This
fourth pram was known as “The Charleston” dating from 1920 to 1935. Isn’t
it fab!
It has a black painted steel body with an embossed decoration on each
side. The black leather hood, again with same metal hinges, is fully
retractable. The interior and hood are lined with white fabric, so too the
fixed mattress.
The metal wheels also have white rubber tyres. This is so
distinctively in the pre-war 1920s/30s style and oozes charm, I absolutely love
it.
I do not know when The Pram Collection started trading but did
find photos of some of their prams featured in the Spring 1994 Issue of
International Dolls House News Magazine. Frustratingly I
cannot find out when they ceased trading, and although I had started trading
and working on the fair circuit by the latter part of the 1990s, I can’t recall
seeing them around. So, if anyone out there can offer any further information
about the Selways and The Pram Collection I would love to hear from you.
Celia
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