A Spot of Luck!

[Updated with new information 29th March, 2020.]

I little while back, I bought a lovely old wooden caravan as a home for my Grecon clown Corny.

I had no idea of the maker but thought it was just the thing for a travelling clown.

I did find a maker's mark on the underside of the veranda (which slots underneath the middle of the caravan when it's on the road) but I couldn't quite make it out. 

I thought it might say 'HEDO Made in Germany' but searching on the web with that didn't get me anywhere.

And then, just this afternoon, I took delivery of an excellent book that I've been after for years: Marianne Cieslik's and Swantje Köhler's ' Lexikon der Puppenstuben und Puppenhäuser' [sadly out of print now and as hard to come by, at least at a reasonable price, as hens' teeth] and while browsing through it I saw a photo that stopped me in my tracks.

Here was a German toy company by the name of HEDO.

I immediately did a web search for the name Herbert Dohnalek Spielzeug [toy] and that lead quickly to the brilliant font of knowledge that is diepuppenstubensammlerin's blogspot where she has shared a chronology of Herbert Dohnalek.

And there, right at the start of the chronology, was a photo of an almost identical caravan in a 1951 catalogue photo. 

I don't think the caravan in the photo has the pull-out-and-slot-on veranda that mine has as I can't see the little wooden bits that pull out to hold the canopy, and the bit under the caravan where the slide-out veranda is stored on mine is hinged in the photo (mine isn't) and looks to be more of a storage box.

I can see from the photograph that the odd little assortment of furniture (above) that came with my caravan is all original. 

What looks like a little plant pot in this photo, can't be seen in the 1951 catalogue photo, but I have now discovered that it could be the shade from little lamp table which was also part of the original furnishings - see below under 'UPDATE'.

There are three of the little dining chairs missing and the night-time bed (the bed I have appears to be a day bed) but otherwise, it seems to be a full set, even down to the radio, though my radio looks to be more basic than the one in the photo.

[Since I've now furnished the caravan to suit Corny the clown, I'll have to carefully store this furniture with a note explaining that it's original to the caravan and hope that it stays together in the future - maybe I'll add a sticker to the underside of the caravan too indicating that there is box of original furniture to go with it.]

I can also see from the photos of dolls' houses in diepuppenstubensammlerin's blog that the tiny and extremely neat blanket stitch in a contrasting colour around the edge of the curtains is a feature of the curtains in Herbert Dohnalek houses and so I suppose that they're original too.

I get unashamedly excited when I identify things I've been trying fruitlessly to research so this little gift has made my day!

UPDATE

I am only just getting around to posting this update now, having actually discovered the information almost two years ago!

In July, 2018 an eBay listing in Germany for an "Old Circus Wagon from 1952" was brought to my attention.

The photos accompanying the listing showed a caravan just like my Hedo/Herbert Dohnalek one - how exciting to see another with its original tractor and in full colour too!  And, luckily, the eBay seller was kind enough to give me permission to show her photos in this blog.

Photo copyright: Bettina.

The listing details (translated from German) were as follows:

“You are bidding on a beautiful, very well-maintained circus wagon with tractor from the year 1952. The wagon can be opened at the side and used as a kind of dollhouse……The wagon is furnished with bed, wardrobe (to open), a couch, floor lamp, table and two chairs. At the end of the wagon, a wooden frame can be pulled out and covered with a kind of awning. Steps lead into the back of the wagon where the double-leaf door is easy to open. The six windows of the circus wagon have curtains and there is a drawer under the wagon which can be pulled out easily and used for storage. A tractor that can be easily uncoupled pulls the car. The whole team has a length of about 62 cm, the circus wagaon is 34 cm long, 25 cm high and 18 cm wide. The tractor is 22 cm long and 13 cm high.”

Copyright: Bettina

Copyright Bettina

Unlike the caravan in the photos from diepuppenstubensammlerin's blogspot (above), this one has a little pull-out canopy like mine. The little pull-out-and-slot-on veranda that mine has is not shown in these 'new' photos, but I think that might only be because the seller didn't realise that the drawer could be removed and attached to the front to form a veranda.

Copyright: Bettina

The original furniture is shown in these photos too and one further discovery was that what I thought was a little plant pot which came with mine, is the same as the lamp shade on the lamp-table in the photo above. Sadly, mine is missing the table and lamp apart from the shade but it's good to know it's part of the original furnishings.

I now also have confirmation that the curtains in my caravan are original as they are exactly the same fabric as those seen in these photos.

Copyright: Bettina

Meanwhile, Corny the Clown continues to live contentedly in the caravan and you can see a little more of him in it here.

Until next time,

Zoe

Repairing a Pressed Card Table

Last week I bought this little set of pressed card 'Korbi' furniture made by Karl Schreiter in Buchholz, Germany in, I believe, the 1920s/30s:

I thought I was only getting the sofa and two chairs, however, the seller very kindly emailed to say that she had the table that matched and, though it was broken, she would pop it in with the other pieces in the hope that I could repair it.

This is was how it was when it arrived but I do like a challenge so I had a good think and decided to have a go at repairing it using Milliput.  

I chose Milliput because it can be easily moulded to shape and I know that it remains stuck to things when it dries out (unlike other modelling materials I've used). 

So, I mixed a small amount of Milliput, flattened it and curved one side to match the curve of the table. Then I pressed it onto the underside of the table so that it filled the missing piece. 

Next I shaped it a bit and used a knife to press some markings into it to match the rest of the table edging - or as near as I could.

Once it had dried, I mixed some acrylics to get a decent match with the blue and painted the Milliput to blend in (I painted the underside blue and cream).  And here it is!

It's not as good as new but it's certainly got a new lease of life.

Until next time,
Zoe

Grecon Brooches - Part II

Regular readers might remember a blog I posted in October last year about Grecon brooches. (The blog can be found here.)

Grecon brooches from my own collection.

In it I featured these little badges which I believed to be Grecon, despite the obvious differences to Miss Cohn's better-known dolls' house dolls.

Well I'm very pleased to report that I now know for certain that they are Grecon!

I mentioned in my last post (A Day to Remember!) that there were a few post-WWII documents in with Miss Cohn's largely Pre-WWII archive and to my absolute delight, the design registration documents for these little figures were amongst them.

Whether or not they were being produced before the start of WWII I don't know, but certainly Miss Cohn was quick to register their design once the war had begun, because the registrations were dated 9th of October, 1939 - so just over a month later.

There were three registrations, each referring to a black and white photo of a single figure (unlike the doubles and triple shown above): an airman, a soldier and a grenadier guard, all exactly like those in my photo - although I can't, of course, be 100% sure of the uniform colours. 

The photos in the registrations were front- and back-views of the figures and the back-view did not include a safety pin. 

However, there were a further two items relating to these little characters in the archive.  One was a cutting from a 1939 edition of Woman's Weekly with an advert on it for a "little woolly hand-made brooch", available from Peter Robinson's in Oxford Street, London and including a drawing of a brooch featuring a pair of soldiers.

The second item was a Dickins & Jones catalogue from Christmas 1941 which included an entry for: "Service Favours. Wear a Mascot Brooch to show your preference for airmen, soldiers, jack tars, or naval officers." and featured a drawing of a pair each of soldiers, sailors and naval officers.

I found it very interesting to see Miss Cohn, who I have always thought of as quite proprietorial with her Grecon brand, allowing her brooches to be sold unbranded by these two companies. 

It was also interesting to note that the figures shown in the registrations did not have the side-ways looking eyes seen on the grenadier guard shown above, which I guessed to be slightly later brooch, so that theory is looking good (or at least it's yet to be disproved!)

So, another piece of the giant Grecon jigsaw is slotted into place - fab!

Until next time,

Zoe

A Day to Remember!

Well what an exciting event took place this weekend!

On Saturday I visited a gentleman holds a collection of [largely] pre-WWI items belonging to Grecon creator Grete Cohn.

I had never seen a photograph of Miss Cohn before this gentleman contacted me through my Grecondale blog site but here she is in the late 1930s!

I love the slightly mischievous look in her eyes - just what you would expect from the creator of our eccentric little Grecon people!

Before my visit I had been pre-warned to expect the unexpected and boy was that right!

In the entire collection, which is extensive, there were only two of the Grecon dolls of the type that we know and love as Grecon dolls today. Almost everything else in the archive relates to Miss Cohn's life and business prior to her settling in England in 1936.

I discovered that in about 1919 she actually had a little toy shop in Berlin where she sold all manner of her ‘artistic’ toys with only the tiniest hints here and there of the miniature dolls she would become known for once she settled in England.

It was interesting to note too that, in addition to other European countries, her toys were being exported even then to the UK and to the US.

She regularly exhibited at the Leipzig toy fair and the collection included the wonderful exhibition pieces that she displayed on her stands there.

I use the word 'wonderful' advisedly. What imagination and skill!

The exhibits varied from large padded dolls with shaped faces and either painted or stitched features, to tiny wool and wire people, animals and tableaux. There were also novelties made from all sorts of oddments and even wooden toys.  The subjects portrayed by the figures and tableaux are extremely varied and imaginative and Miss Cohn clearly enjoyed experimenting with different themes and materials but, as those of us familiar with her later work would expect, all of her creations captured life and motion brilliantly.

Miss Cohn appears to have kept every scrap of documentation from the day she started her business  until she left Germany, including correspondence and orders from toy companies.  Rather unhelpfully for me, it is all in German of course! I have been attending German language classes once a week at night school for the last two years and that proved to be useful, but my knowledge of the language was still woefully inadequate!

As well as all the business documentation, the collection contained Miss Cohn's personal documents, her photo albums, including old family photos of her parents who tragically perished in concentration camps during WWII. She even kept her artwork from her time at college in Berlin, her exercise books from school and her letters to her family and friends.

Rather puzzlingly, there are comparatively few documents and no exhibits relating to her many years of running the Grecon business in England.

That said, there were a number of newspaper articles, a handful of design registrations and various catalogues containing Grecon products, which were wonderful to see and very useful for confirming some of the deductions I have made on my 'About Grecon Dolls' web page, but I do wonder where everything else went and if it will ever turn up!

Anyway, I had a fabulously interesting and enlightening day and I am enormously grateful to the holder of the collection for allowing me to view it.

Until next time,
Zoe