Britains Lead Garden Gate

This has just gone up for sale on KT Miniatures and has to be one of my most favourite pieces of the vintage Britains Lead Garden Series of all time. For me it evokes all kinds of images of an era long gone - so very 1930's. With the right style of vintage dolls house, maybe one that has a fixed ledge frontage, this would look fabulous! The Britains flower beds can also add a real touch of lovliness to ones vintage house- I usually have at least one filled corner bed sitting at the front of my old 1930s Hobbies House...however due to my two kittens who are now taking a keen interest in practically anything large or small, mine have had to be temporarily put away...(the lead flower beds I mean)! 

The gate opens and shuts freely and comes with two beautifully moulded and painted hedge sections. Although in reality all of Britains Garden pieces are manufactured in 1/32 scale, to be honest, it's scale is irrelevant in my opinion when used with old dolls houses and can look just as good with both 1/12th and 1/16th dolls houses.

I do have more of these lead garden items to list over the coming week or so (various filled flower beds mainly).....but due to the school holidays still being in full swing here, my teenage offspring and visiting niece this week are needing a bit of ferrying around & attention...(I think I should just stick a great big sign saying TAXI on the roof of my car...and be done with it!)...therefore my time is rather limited and my "to do list" is becoming even longer at the moment. My apologies to anyone who has been waiting for the past three weeks for these Britains items....hopefully KT Miniatures routine will get back on track very shortly.

If you are interested in looking at the current Britains Lead Garden items.....CLICK HERE

Grecon Dolls

If you are a lover of these little vintage Grecon Dolls, then you may be interested in a whole load that have just come in that are currently going up for sale on KT Miniatures.

They belonged to an elderly lady who worked for Galt in London and it is assumed that this is where they came from as apparently Galt did sell Grecon dolls. I often find Grecon dolls very difficult to date, however several of these are quite distinctively dressed and there is no doubt that they derive from the latter part of the 20th century! What is quite remarkable, is that they are simply in pristine condition, never having been played with but instead stored away carefully in a box! The lady who owned these has sadly passed and the new owner who inherited them knew that they were very special and want all of these to go to a good home. Judging by the speed in which these are being snapped up, I am left in no doubt that these are going to be well treasured!

I love some of the hair styles of the little girls....very trendy and some of these have imitation hair instead of the normal woollen hair that all previous Grecon dolls would have had. I am assuming these were the more modern of the bunch? There are still more to be listed and there will be a considerable few with some real whacky 1970s outfits!

Also, you may be interested to know that their shoes are very different in so much as many of the  larger shoes have no heel however several do but judging from the style of the clothes, these have all been made around the 1960s/1970s, possibly early 1980s?  Also some of the smaller shoes do have heels but some don't....even some dolls with matching outfits (so made at the same time) have different style shoes to each other......there does not seem to be a dinstinctive rule?  Every single doll (and there are 60 of them) have a label on the back that states "Grecon Made In England".
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL RANGE OF GRECON DOLLS CURRENTLY FOR SALE

A Little 1930s Dolls House

This is another gorgeous little dolls house that has just gone up for sale on KT Miniatures website. In fact, I have been torn whether to keep this or not as it is just delightful. However, sadly I just do not have the space so go it must! But if you are a lover of the 1930s era, then you will love this!

It opens up at the front via four little doors, each with a tiny handle. The house appears to be in original condition and although obviously has been played with, the new owner can move straight in! The ceiling height is high enough to allow 1/12th scale furniture, so this house may appeal to collectors of modern reproduction dolls houses as well as vintage collectors too?

A nice little touch is the vintage lace that hangs up at each window. If you would like to see more, then please CLICK HERE

Unusual Tri-ang No. 61 Dolls House

When I first saw this Tri-ang No. 61 dolls house, I was immediately drawn to the very pretty pale blue windows which were unusual for this kind of model. With the dark brown metal frames to the windows I just assumed that it was prewar...however, the more I looked at it, realised that some aspects just didn't seem quite the norm. There is the pale blue bench for instance, which normally is seen on the earlier 1930's Tri-angs.

Then of course there is that wallpaper, which is normally seen on later 1930s, early 1940s models plus the label...even though half torn off, can still make out that it is the one that was commonly seen from late 1930's to about 1956. However No 61's constructed during the late 1930's would normally have a window box under the downstairs window plus curved timbering, so I was curious as to why these were missing.

Anyway, after consulting Marion Osborne, she too felt that this was manufactured either at the beginning of the war (Tri-ang continued to manufacture up until 1941 then had to cease) or maybe after the war in 1947, when Tri-ang started manufacturing again. Either way, this house has been constructed using old leftover components from the 1930's decade...obviously because when this was made, materials were drastically in short supply. So this makes this rather special.

Personally, I think this is one of the prettiest No.61's I have seen, as the pale blue windows look extremely attractive against the dark frames. This house has now been put up for sale on KT Miniatures website.

For full details, CLICK HERE.

ANTIQUE DOLLS HOUSE & MINIATURES FAIR - COBHAM VILLAGE HALL, SURREY, UK

I have just returned from  this wonderful event as a visitor (is nice to be on the other side of the table as just a buyer for a change)! If you are a fan of antique and vintage dolls houses, you will simply love this event. This was the first time I had been to this particular fair and disappointed I was most definitely not. There were loads of tables literally overflowing with antique and vintage dolls house goodies of all descriptions for visitors to buy - the selection was breathtaking.   It just seemed that anyone who is anyone in the vintage dolls house world was there either selling or buying!

It was great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones for the first time. Congratulations to the organiser for a lovely event!

The next fair, I understand, will take place on Sunday June 27th 2010 at Cobham Village Hall, Lushington Drive, Cobham, Surrey KT11 2LU.

I can strongly recommend this event to anyone who collects antique and vintage dolls houses (plus old dolls and toys).