Recent Acquistions

I had the opportunity to go with my mother-in-law to a vintage flea market today and found a few odds and ends.

The hand painted metal furniture will look good in a garden ?  I liked that it was still in the original box, what I didnt like is that is was missing the table.

This ceramic urn caught my eye

I picked up a few other ceramic pieces and a metal roasting pan - all at 1" scale.

I liked the legs on this table - I assume it's Strombecker, but I will need to do some research to find out.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Westhope

Tulsa is home a unique Frank Llyod Wright House called Westhope. It is one of the only concrete block-textile houses built outside of California and has quite a history.




The following is a expert from a Tulsa World article - I added some photos that were on display at local museum.

A scandalous affair and a shocking mass murder may have played a part in Frank Lloyd Wright’s decision in 1928 to design a home in Tulsa for his cousin.

Westhope, a distinctive concrete block and glass home at 3704 S. Birmingham Ave., was built for the family of Richard Lloyd Jones, publisher of The Tulsa Tribune.


America’s pre-eminent architect, Wright had scandalized Chicago society in 1909 by leaving his wife and six children and running away with the wife of a client. Five years later, Wright’s mistress and six others were savagely murdered by a crazed hatchet-wielding servant.


Wright was out of town when, on Aug. 15, 1914, cook Julian Carlton killed Mamah Borthwick Cheney, her two children and four others. Carlton also set fire to Taliesin, the Wisconsin home Wright had built for his mistress. Carlton’s motive remains a mystery, as he drank poison and died in jail seven weeks later without explaining his actions.


Beset by grief, lawsuits, a disastrous second marriage and the public’s changing taste in design, Wright may have needed the Tulsa job. However, he immediately locked horns with his cousin.


Jones wanted a home in the architect’s signature Prairie style. But what he got was a futuristic house built of formed concrete blocks stacked into pillars, interspersed with vertical glass panels.




The home was built on a knoll, then located outside the city limits. The original budget of $40,000 ballooned to $100,000 for the 8,443-square-foot home.

During construction, neighbors were increasingly baffled by the house and wanted to know what it was, according to “Frank Lloyd Wright,” a biography by Meryle Secrest.

“A pickle factory,” Jones replied. He was then asked, “Do they have to build them like this?”




Wright was proud of his design, though, reportedly saying during one visit, “The damn thing is even more beautiful than I had imagined.”

The flat roof began to leak as soon as Jones, his wife Georgia and their three children moved into Westhope in 1931. Furious, Jones made a long-distance call to his cousin.

“Dammit, Frank. It’s leaking on my desk!” Jones said.

“Richard, why don’t you move your desk?” Wright replied calmly. (The desk was built-in.) Mrs. Jones was more philosophical.

“This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain,” Georgia Jones said.

Despite such problems, the Jones family grew to enjoy their unusual home.

“This Tulsa home has proved the practical reasoning behind Wright’s ideas,” wrote Gretchen Haralson in a 1955 Tribune article. “The Joneses have no fire hazard in this concrete home. There is no expensive millwork. The clerestory lighting brings the moon in and sunlight is there all year without glare. Rooms melt into each other.”

After Jones’ death in 1963, his family sold the home to architect M. Murray McCune, who succeeded in having the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. He also updated the kitchen and installed air conditioning, concealing the vents with grills made using Wright’s original patterns.


A story published in 1991 said the house contained five bedrooms, 4½ baths, five fireplaces and a five-car garage. There is a lap pool, cabana, fountain, fish pond and two original Wright-designed light fixtures.

The home has its quirks, Mona Shoup wrote in an article, Such as the front door, which blends into the glass panels so seamlessly that visitors can’t find it.


“That’s a Frank Lloyd Wright signature,” said then-owner Dwight Holden, who lived there with his wife, Sandra, and two daughters. “He likes to have some mystery about the doors.”


The home has changed hands several times over the years, but at least one object remains: a 7,000-pound petrified rock.


Recessed lighting radiates from concrete columns, each of which has its own light switch. Holden said the living room alone has 57 lights, making changing bulbs a weekly chore. Turning out all the lights at night is comparable to putting a 5-year-old to bed, he said.


There are few places to hang a picture, and anyway you would need a concrete drill, Holden said. Plumbing and electrical repairs must be done by workers accustomed to the house’s eccentricities.


Barbara Tyson, a member of the family that founded Tyson Foods Inc. in Springdale, Ark., currently owns the property, which is valued at about $1.3 million by the Tulsa County assessor.

And what of the architect? Wright found happiness again with his third wife and rebuilt his reputation, culminating with one of his most significant achievements, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which opened in 1959 six months after his death at 91.

Miniature Club Well Project

At our last club meeting we started a miniature well. The base is a cardboard tube.  We all took different routes. Some glued on real rocks, some glued on shells, and some just painted the tube. I chose paper clay. 

After painting a few washes, I chose some wood shingles and added some moss to the North side.

Latest Project

I came across a bag of 1"=1'-0" scale miniature chair pieces at a local antique mall.  

 I figured the $3 asking price was probably worth it.

TOOTSIETOY Sign

My son pointed out this tin litho Tootsietoy sign mounted to the wall at a restaurant while we were on vacation this summer.

I guess I must be rubbing off on him?

 

 

The restaurant was literally covered with wall to wall with all kinds of advertisements.

 

 

 

To see my Tootsietoy collection click HERE

Recent Acquisitions

I was able to purchase a few items from a miniature estate sale in Oklahoma City last weekend.  The estate sale included items from two collectors who had recently passed away. 

 

I found these striped porcelain dishes that I have in my 1970's house with my Hall's Lifetime Furniture Collection.  You can see my Hall's collection by clicking HERE

I also purchased a few odds and ends at the sale including this wooden bowl, a crate of grapes and a Reutter Porcelain juicer and toast caddy and the dishes shown below.

I purchased these green dishes for my 1940's Strombecker house.  It has a green kitchen.

There was a box that had these dishes and the silver punch bowl below - 
I will find a place for them somewhere!

crackers & cheese ? ( A fimo find at a garage sale)

I have quite a bit of red velvet Victorian furniture, but I hadn't seen these chairs before, so I purchased them along with this Bespaq table. I like the Lyre supports on the table- maybe in a music room?

I found these Gothic arched chairs at a local antique mall a while back.  Not sure where I will use them, but I like all of the intricate detail.

I came across this light oak carved cabinet and decided it might go nicely with these other light oak pieces that I have had for many years.( see below)

These mahogany carved chairs and tables below with white Damask Taffeta upholstery, were also at a local antique mall and the Bespaq trunk was at a garage sale that our local miniature club hosted here in Tulsa last month.

The trunk is one of my new favorite pieces.

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!

Petite Princess Dining Room

I came across this Petite Princess Dining Room on EBay the other day and picked it up for a great price.  I have a few pieces of this plastic furniture made by Ideal.

To see the rest of my Petite Princess collection, click HERE

Kage House Exterior Windows

I have finally finished making the window trim for the exterior of the Kage house.  I snapped a few photos.  

To learn more about my Kage collection and the house that I am building for it, click HERE

Wardrobe Break

I came across this wardrobe at a local antique mall the other day.  The round posts on the front reminded me of the Sonia Messer furniture that I have been collecting.

I decided to take a break from making window trim and paint the columns on the wardrobe to match the Sonia Messer Pieces.

The wardrobe has a brown stain, so I went over it with a little mahogany stain to try and make it look a little closer.

Here the wardrobe is pictured with a few other pieces.

To see my other Sonia Messer pieces, click the Sonia Messer Label below.