Vintage Marx Tin Litho Mid-Century Modern House

I came across this Marx Tin Lithograph Ranch style house at a local estate sale a while back.  It is 1/2" scale and has almost all of the original furniture that came with the house.

Some of the original furniture included baby furniture - 

the perfect set up for a starter house for a newlywed couple.

One of the neat pieces of the furniture is the television on a stand that rotates.

A little research shows that this patio is most likely a car port.

 A special thanks to these two for helping hold the back-drop!

Playsteel Colonial Dollhouse

While at an antique mall today on my lunch break, I came across the perfect "starter" home for my collection of plastic furniture.   Click HERE to see the pieces that I have collected so far.

The Playsteel Colonial dollhouse was manufactured by the National Can Corp. of New York and arrived on the market in 1948.  I don't know how much money this house sold for in 1948, but I was able to negotiate the price of mine to  just $17!

One of the things I love about old lithographed houses is the graphics and this house is not exception.  The living room has wood floors and a large area rug.  The paneled walls are white with some built-ins around the fireplace wall.  

The kitchen is bright yellow and red with a striped linoleum floor.

The upstairs has three rooms, this is the master bedroom in teals and yellow.

The nursery is decorated in pinks and pale blues and nursery rhyme characters.

My favorite room in this house is the bathroom.  It has a linoleum floor complete with fish and bubbles and mural of a majestic swan above the area for the bathtub.

No nursery furniture yet, in fact if you look close, there is only a twin bed - I guess it is a bachelor pad for now.

Tin Lithograph Doll Furniture

I came across a collection of metal doll furniture at an estate sale today.  The scale is too big for my taste, but still interesting and fun to see it all together.

The graphics on the inside of the "Polar Refrigerator" are great - note that it is labeled "Wolverine Refrigerator" and each rack is packed with everything you could possibly put in a fridge!

Here is the exterior of the Polar Refrigerator

This metal table and chair set have a image a little girl with a bonnet.  It's always 4 O'Clock in the kitchen below!

Here is a close up of the high chair by J. Chein with a working tray and teddy bear litho - I believe it dates from the 1950's.

I liked the graphics on this cupboard

  Here are a couple of old stoves of varying scales

This small stove was electric

There was also a brightly painted metal doll bed in teals and pinks with printed graphics of little red riding hood on the headboard and foot board.

While I didnt buy any of this stuff, I did pick up a few miniature accessories.

Tin Lithos

My two tin lithographed houses reside on the palm-lined street in the study atop some book shelves.

(The palm trees were a 75% off after Christmas find and are made of painted metal also.)

 One of the things I liked about these two houses when I purchased them several years ago, was that they are from such different era's - the 1940's and the 1950's.  The decor is radically different inside and out. The one from the 40's uses bright and bold colors and the one a decade later is mainly pastel colors.

In 1948, T. Cohn introduced this elegant Spanish themed, tile roof home as their first dollhouse.  The detail is wonderful.  The lattice windows, which are fully functional are a wonderful touch.  The house was unique with its tiled, pitched roof with it centered chimney and lots of flowers and shrubs decorate the exterior

The master bedroom has a floral print wall paper and featurs a floral rug set near the front opening of the house so that no matter how you arranged the furniture in the rooms, it would be visible.

The nursery has a sort of circus theme with toys on a shelf on the wall.

The kitchen is bright with its yellow and red walls and a geometric linoleum floor.  The walls are decorated with a a shelf and clock and a large fruit wreath.

The large living room in the T. Cohn house has dark green walls, a roaring fire place and built-in book shelves.  The light colored floor also has a tradition green border.

The patio is on the second level and is filled with brightly colored floor tiles.

This house was first produced in 1959. It reminds me a lot of the Brady Bunch House. This one sits on large base that was lithoed to look like a patio and provide the 'Split Level" look. My research showed that the house came with plastic front, back and inside steps, and a plastic grill/bbq that was built right into the wall adjoining the patio and kitchen. There were various models of this house and they all came with some, none or all of the following: playground set, pool set, Corvette or T-Bird car, split rail fences, plastic trees and shrubs, bird bath with birds, dogs, rock fence, vegetable garden, boxwood hedge, horses with riders, 18-20 dollhouse figures, lighting, working doorbell, and an opening front door.

The kitchen is this house is also a bright yellow, but features modern applianced of the day including a built-in oven.

the family room and dining room are done in tones of blue with modern built-in cabinets of yellow and blue.  There is a wonderful harliquin pattern wallpaper in the "breakfast" area.

The master bedroom is decorated in kind of mint color and is relatively bare compared to the other rooms in the house.

I really like the living room.  It has wood paneling on the walls, built-in shelves, a mid century modern fireplace with modern art hanging on the walls.  The pattern on curtains is great too.

The outdoor pation on the modern house is pastel colored flag stones.  There is a great website which features both of these and a whole lot more:

http://www.barbigirl.com/marxhome.htm 

Another thing that I think is so great about these houses, is that there is so much detail, it is pretty easy to imagine a family living in each of these rooms even without furniture.