Truly Madly Tiny: May 2021

Thursday, 13 May 2021

The Wonders of Dol-Toi Accessories

I don't have much Dol-Toi furniture in my collection as, generally speaking, I find it to be too small, even for my smaller houses. However, the same can't be said for Dol-Toi accessories which I find perfect for adding interest to 1:16 scale properties.

The list of different Dol-Toi accessories a child could spend their pocket money on is huge, but here are some of my favourites:

Dol-Toi Breadboard, Loaf and Knife

As a young girl, I would have found adding details like this breadboard set and the pastry set below to my doll's house absolutely thrilling.

Dol-Toi Mixing Bowl, Pastry Board and Rolling Pin

My pasty board and the breadboard are essentially the same and the rolling pin sits in a groove like the one in the breadboard in the previous photo. The mixing bowl is made of plaster.

Dol-Toi Salad Bowl

The sweet little bowl of salad is also made of plaster.

Dol-Toi Toast Rack

These little toast racks are such a lovely vintage detail for a dolls' house kitchen that they've found homes in several of mine.

Dol-Toi Plate Rack

As have the plate racks for the same reason. They look sweet with painted metal Dol-Toi tea plates stacked in them.

Dol-Toi Pan Rack and Pan Set

These colourful tiny metal pans sit neatly in the little wooden pan rack and are another lovely detail for a smaller-scale kitchen.

Dol-Toi Groceries

The groceries are another firm favourite in the kitchens of my smaller houses. I find that majority of vintage groceries (as opposed to modern reproductions of vintage groceries) are too big for my dolls' houses, but these are great...

Dol-Toi Groceries in a Barton Kitchen Dresser

...and fit perfectly into the cupboards and on shelves in 1:16 scale furniture.

Dol-Toi 'Electric' Mixer

The fab electric mixer is made of plaster. Which 1960s cook didn't own or long to own a Kenwood Chef!

Dol-Toi Pans with Food

Bringing the dolls' house kitchen further to life, these Dol-Toi pans have various contents and can sit bubbling away happily on the cooker top.

Dol-Toi Plates of Food

And for when breakfast, lunch or dinner is served, these sweet little metal plates with plaster food on them are just the ticket!

Dol-Toi Lobster Platter

For those special occasions, how about a lobster platter? This platter is made of plastic with a plaster lobster, but the earlier ones are made of metal with plaster food.

Dol-Toi Green Cups and Saucers

Dol-Toi's little metal tea sets are lovely and come in several pretty colours, but the green set is my favourite as it's so cheerful.

Oddly, the tea pot in the later tea sets is unfeasibly large (Scout jamboree size!) compared to the rest of the pieces. I wonder how many of the tiny tea cups it could fill... oh dear, I see a miniature experiment in the offing, ha ha!

Dol-Toi Cake Stand and Cake

Another lovely detail for a dolls' house. The cake is wooden and the stand is glass.

Dol-Toi Soda Syphon

Which other British dolls' house maker supplied such grown-up and sophisticated accessories as this glass soda syphon? I don't think I even knew what a soda syphon was as a young girl of the 60s and 70s!

Dol-Toi Soda Syphon

This syphon has a slightly fancier base than the one in the previous photo.

Dol-Toi Decanter, Tray and Wine Goblets

Again, this set is far removed from anything I was familiar with in my childhood home, but aren't they great? And they do suit the more affluent households in my dolls' house collection now!

Dol-Toi Bottle of Wine and Wine Goblets

In addition to the soda syphon and decanter, Dol-Toi sold a selection of alcoholic beverages for the dolls' house drinks trolly or cabinet.

Dol-Toi wine goblets (I'm not sure why they didn't just call them glasses!) vary a lot in size but are all generally quite tiny.

Dol-Toi Bottle of Whiskey, Tray and Tumblers

The trays came in silver and gold and were either round or oval.

For those dolls' house drinks parties, other tipples such as Absinthe, Advocaat, Claret, Port and Burgundy were available.

Dol-Toi Brown Glasses and Tray

These brown glasses always look to me as if whatever beverage was in them has already been drained by the dolls' house residents.

Dol-Toi Goblets and Tray

These cheerful red glasses are my favourites.

Dol-Toi Letter Rack and Letters

Moving away from the kitchen and drinks cabinet to the other rooms in the dolls' house, what mid-20th century home was complete without a letter rack?

Dol-Toi Letter Rack and Letters

They were even supplied complete with Dol-Toi stationery!

Dol-Toi Alarm Clock

This little alarm clock would be a cute little detail in any vintage dolls' house bedroom.

Dol-Toi Standard Lamp

(Also Dol-Toi Alarm Clock and Book)

I'm not sure if the shade on my lamp is original or not as the others I've seen are made of paper, but it looks right to me and is a huge part of the appeal of the piece.

Dol-Toi Bear Rug and Leopard Rug

I like to think these odd little Dol-Toi rugs were based on the imitation fur rugs many households of the 60s and 70s sported and not real animal skins. What were we all thinking back then? I'm so glad we live in generally more enlightened times now.

Dol-Toi 'Continental' Flower Trough

Dol-Toi delightfulness can also be added to the garden with a little flower trough!

Dol-Toi Radio

And this lovely little radio is perfect for the hair salon.

So, that's my tour of my favourite Dol-Toi accessories compete.

Having said at the start that Dol-Toi furniture is generally too small for my houses, I do have a handful of pieces which I treasure and I'll end this post with a photo of my absolute favourite Dol-Toi set:

Dol-Toi 'Modern Kitchen' (1957-67)

This cheerful vintage green colour with the stained wood and formica tops is so appealing to me. The fact that the whole kitchen fits neatly into the bay window of my Tri-ang Ultra Modern is an added bonus.

Before I finish, I must mention that everything I know about the Dol-Toi items in my collection comes from the meticulous research of Marion Osborne, published in The Book of Dol-Toi - Dolls House Furniture and Accessories 1941-1975, 2012 - a highly recommended book which comes with a CD containing hundreds of colour photographs (and no, I'm not on commission!)

Until next time,

Zoe

[All photos copyright Zoe Handy, May 2021.]

Wednesday, 5 May 2021

A Collection Completed!

After seven years of collecting the Queen Anne range of Tri-ang Period furniture, I finally completed the full set a few weeks ago!

It's not, generally speaking, a difficult range to collect and most pieces come up for sale fairly regularly, but there were two pieces which had eluded me for several years:

And here they are:

Queen Anne Upright Piano and Music Stool

Photo © Zoe Handy

I have missed out on the little Music Stool several times in the past, so I was delighted to eventually get my hands on one a couple of months ago.

I thought that was pretty good, but then, lo and behold, the rare as hens' teeth 'upright piano' came up for auction. I wasn't going to miss out on it, so I bid on it for my life and won - dancing around the house was involved, despite the eye-watering price!

Everything I know about this range of furniture comes from Marion Osbourne's excellent research, published in The Book of Tri-ang Furniture for the Dolls' House, 2013.

The range was made by Tri-ang from 1935 to 1940 and, given that it's made from 1mm birch plywood, it's amazing how much of it has survived the test of time, though several of my pieces do bear the scars.

There were twenty-three pieces in the range, identified as QA1-23 in price lists, with the Drawing Room and Dining Room pieces numbered QA1-14, the Bedroom pieces numbered QA15-19 and "Extras" numbered QA20-23.

And here are those twenty-three pieces:

Queen Anne Dining Cabinet (QA1)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Dining Cabinet (QA1) - Interior

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Writing Bureau (QA2)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Writing Bureau (QA2) - Interior

Photo © Zoe Handy

Pull-out Supports for Drop-down Front

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Writing Armchair (QA3)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Bedroom Chair with Ladder Back (QA4)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Chair with Splat Back (QA5)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Fire Screen (QA6)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Bedroom China Cabinet (QA7)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Easy Chair (QA8)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Settee (QA9)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Side Table with Imitation Marble Top (QA10)

Photo © Zoe Handy

Queen Anne Console Table (QA11)

Queen Anne Occasional Table (QA12)

Queen Anne Hanging Mirror (QA13)

Queen Anne Dining Table (QA14)

Queen Anne Footstool (QA15)

Queen Anne Wardrobe (QA16)

Queen Anne Wardrobe (QA16) - Inside

Queen Anne Wardrobe (QA16) - Close-up of Hanger

Queen Anne Bedstead (QA17) - Original Mattress and Bolster

Queen Anne Dressing Mirror (QA18)

Queen Anne Chest of Drawers (QA19)

Queen Anne Grand Piano (QA20)

Queen Anne Grand Piano (QA20) - Open

Queen Anne Grand Piano (QA20) - Close-up of Music Rest and Graphics Inside

Queen Anne Upright Piano (QA21)

Queen Anne Upright Piano (QA21) - Keyboard Lid Up

Queen Anne Upright Piano (QA21) - Top Open

Queen Anne Music Stool (QA22)

Queen Anne Dresser with Plates (QA23) - (Missing one Back Leg)

The five metal plates are original and are attached to the dresser.

Purist collectors might consider my collection to be incomplete because in addition to the items shown above, the following might also be collected:

The Grand Piano, the Upright Piano and the Music Stool (QA20-22) were also available in an "Ebony" finish as well as the "Walnut" one which all of my pieces have.

The range could be bought in boxed sets for the bedroom, dining room and drawing room. Even if these weren't extremely rare, I'm not a boxed set kind of girl and prefer my furniture in dolls' houses!

For more adventurous children (or parents, more likely), there was a "Constructional Drawing Room Set" and a "Constuctional Bedroom Set" available. These contained pre-cut furniture parts and the necessary tools and instructions to construct the furniture, upholster it and apply the walnut effect finish. Again, this isn't my sort of thing (I would have to construct them!) but they are interesting to see and, though they did include the same "petit point design" upholstery fabric, they do explain why some pieces of the range are to be found with different upholstery fabrics on them (the chair shown above with the QA10 Side Table for example), where perhaps the constructor decided to use a different one to suit the colour scheme in their dolls' house better. It also explains why they the Queen Anne Period furniture is to be found with much variation in the finish, and the instructions reveal that the finish was achieved by applying a white undercoat to the wood and then, when that was dry, applying the varnish on top and dabbing it with a rag.

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So, it took me seven years to collect the Queen Anne range and I wonder how long will it take to complete the even more elusive Jacobean range. To date, I've acquired twelve out of the nineteen different pieces which have been identified so far, so I'm getting there, but the quest continues!

Until next time,

Zoe