Recent Acquisitions

I haven't posted about some of my miniature finds in a while.  

I have picked up a few things at local estate sales and ebay.  

I came across this Egyptian style chair at an estate sale this week.  It is by Willits and the collection is called "Take A Seat" -To see the rest of my Take A Seat collection, click HERE

I found this wood dresser with mirror on ebay.  It is part of my HALL'S collection.

It is constructed from veneered plywood and particle board and first appeared in their 1972 catalog.

To see the HALL'S pieces that I have collected so far, click HERE

I found this elephant collection at an estate sale a while back.  The sale included almost anything elephant that you can think of.  The largest one is less than an inch tall and appears to be carved from bone or ivory, the one on the right is plastic the the other three are metal.  The smallest one is about 1/8" tall.

I found this scale and silver tea pot at another sale.  They are 1"=1'0" scale

The tea pot is actually a momento from one of the America's Cup Races.  

It says New Zealand and has a year that I cant quite make out.

This collection of items was from another estate sale. I like the tiny wooden box of sewing notions, threads, ribbon, scissors, and the tiny eye glasses.  

I found this Renwal #27 plastic baby scooter at yet another estate sale.  

It dates from the 1950's.  To see the rest of my plastic furniture, and see my 200th post HERE

Lastly, I came across a bunch of Hallmark Christmas ornaments that work great for miniature displays, because they are close to 1"= 1'-0" scale.

The Yellow HOT ROD is a reproduction of the 1956 Garton pedal car

The burgundy car is a reproduction of 1937 Steelcraft pedal car by Airflow 

(note the tiny squeeze horn mounted on the side)

and my favorite is the green tricycle.  It is a reproduction of the 1937 Steelcraft Streamline Velocipede by Murray - great pin stripes

They make great accessories to period displays

1970's Walmar House

I have been looking for a 1970's construction kind of house for my Hall's Lifetime furniture collection.  I have seen a few Hall's Lifetime Houses come up for auction on eBay, but they have been out of my price range.  I recently purchased this house online.  I liked it because it looked like it was from the right era and after a little research I was able to find out some great information on this particular house too.  The house also has a similar look to the Hall's Lifetime Dollhouses.

This house was manufactured by a company called Walmar.  Through a little internet research, I was able to track down a representative from the company.  The company no longer makes dollhouses, but they are still around making cabinetry.  The house was still in it's original box.  It came with the exterior pre-finished.  The architectural style is kind of cross between Colonial and Georgian. Historic styles like Colonial were very popular and copied due to the Bicentennial of the United States during the 1970's.  I myself, was riding on a float in the 1976 Bicentennial Parade dressed like historic firefighter!

I was able to correspond with a representative from the company and she told me that
they sold the dollhouse division in 1999. However they are  still very much involved in the company, which is now dedicated to cabinetry design and manufacturing. She also shared that as his wife and business partner, and that she too was involved with the dollhouse division back in the day.

She wrote, "The dollhouse in the photo you sent is among the first of our designs. It was manufactured around 1973-1974. It is the Colonial and was one of the largest dollhouses available at that time. It was also a "peg assembly" house. My father, who founded our company in 1972 and was a career USAF officer, designed dollhouses which could 'knock down'. As a military family always on the move, it was the only way he could conceive to design a dollhouse! This line of dollhouses was discontinued in the early to mid-80s.

The stairs are covered in in a dark green felt and have a Masonite 'trellis-like' rail.
I plan to give the house a 70's feel.  I have worked on projects that were Victorian, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's and modern.  It has been kind of fun and different working on something from the era that was my childhood.   I have worked past the "this is old" attitude, to the "this is kinda cool" attitude.  I can't wait to start on the interior.

I had to layout the furniture in each of the rooms to see how it was going to fit !  You can see the "pegs" if you look carefully, they are wood and have round balls on the end of them.  I can't wait to start working on it.

Hall's Lifetime Toys finds

I recently added a few pieces to my Hall's Lifetime Toy collection and decided to snap a photo or two with some different wallpaper and flooring.  I really like the lines of the living room furniture, kind of a cross between art deco meets mid-century modern.  The T.V. is totally 1970's and we had a similar one when I was a little.   I think with some cool artwork on the walls, this room will look really great.

The dining room set is all wood and has corner cabinets.  I wonder if the Hall's company was inspired by the Tynietoy company, because they seem to be a modern take on the 1920's version.

Here is the corner cabinet from my Tynietoy collection for comparison.

http://tulsatinystuff.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-tynietoy-collection.html

The canopy bed is all decked out in a harvest gold colored nubby silk fabric.  My sister had a similar yellow ruffle bedspread back in the 1970's.

I like the simple lines of the kitchen items. I also like the splatter pink and gold "Formica" looking contact paper that is on the both the counter top and the front of the fridge.  I do not know if it came from the factory this way or was added by a later owner.  Note, the chairs are exactly like the dining room ones, except painted white.

The blue bedroom furniture is also simple and sturdy.  The rocking chair looks pretty clunky compared to the other pieces.  This is the original floral bedding that came with the set back in the early 1970s.

I was fortunate enough to find a complete bathroom set, including the original furry bathroom rug.  I like the textured wood on the front of the clothes hamper, another item, that reminds of our clothes hamper growing up.

The baby nursery is all painted a flat pink color and has a decal of little lamb on both the crib and the play-pen.  This set also came with its original bedding, and a clothes hamper. 

There is a red cushioned living room set with a couch ( which I don't have yet) and a wing back chair.  There is more to the chair than meets the eye.  It actually has some pretty cool angles. 

Most of the furniture is very sturday and built from veneered plywood.

I would like to find a Hall's Lifetime Toy's dollhouse to house all these pieces, but until then, I will make due with a vintage 1970's house I have had my eye on, on eBay.  A Hall's house recently came up on eBay, but it was too pricey for me.

 I came across this bathroom with a double sink at an estate sale

 This avocado green kitchen is in great shape.

This pink nursery set is a a duplicate that I will be selling on ebay - if you are intersted, let me know!

My Hall's Collection

Halls Lifetime Toys

Hall's Lifetime Toys, Chattanooga Tennessee

1 inch scale dollhouse furniture

I stumbled on to a few pieces of Hall's after going into a local antique/vintage store.  I asked if they had any dollhouse furniture and the clerk said he did have shoebox full somewhere.  He went into the back room and returned with the box.  I had remembered seeing some of it in some of Dian Zillner's books.  It is sturdy all wood construction and painted.  None of the doors or drawers are operable.

I have not actively been looking for anymore, but it is kind of fun to own something from "my generation"  I have noticed a piece or two come up for auction on Ebay.

 

The kitchen set has some very '70's contact paper added to it.  I do not know if this is original or not.

 

 A few of the pieces have these metalic stickers on the back.

 

The bedroom set is light blue and in very good shape.  The bed has a mattress and a small floral print bedspread.  The rocker seams kind of "clunky" to me.

See the rest of my Hall's collection here:
http://tulsatinystuff.blogspot.com/2011/11/halls-lefietime-toys-finds.html