Restoration methods on historical dollhouses – wallpaper

Original or old wallpapers in a dollhouse, even if badly stained, should be left in place as a badly marked but original paper is preferable to the finest replacement. A purely cosmetic improvement can be effected by the judicious hanging of pictures, or the placing of a screen or a wall hanging. If one section is missing completely, then it might be possible to paint a small panel and fix this over the offending area. The removal or layers of new paper is often a hazardous exercise as it is easy to apply the wrong pressure and pull away some of the original also. If it is an old adhesive which has become granular with age, then it is sometimes possible to separate the layers without wetting. In other cases, warm water, brushed on the surface, will loosen the glue sufficiently for a layer to be removed. Fortunately the lower layer is usually fixed very firmly to the wood and will stand a surprising amount of hard treatment. If the paper is very reluctant to come away, then a proprietary stripper can be used, though again, use sparingly and attempt to salvage any of the bottom layer. Often during this stripping process once becomes a bit disillusioned, as so many sections of the original paper are found to be missing. My advice is, do not despair but continue resolutely and finish the room tot eh best of your ability and then examine what remains. Sometimes two walls, for instance, will be only slightly damaged while the remainder is ruinous, and in this case it seems legitimate to remove the few pieces from the worst wall and use them to fill the gaps in the better sections, so preserving most of the original covering and leaving the bare wall free for a decorative panel or a large piece of furniture.

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Collecting dollhouses – some advice

Fashion always plays a considerable part in collecting of all kinds, and it is possible that, as in the area of certain dolls, the dollhouse might possibly be worth less in two years time than when it was acquired. At the time of writing, such models are enjoying a burst of popularity, but it should in fairness be pointed out that dollhouses are not really within the scope of the pure investor, partly because it is virtually impossible to realize the full market value of the object after it has been restored and furnished as the individual plenishments are now so very expensive. We must therefore regard the dollhouse not with the eye of the profiteer but with the enthusiastic devotion of the true collector, who delights in an item for its own sake rather than for vulgar monetary value.

Dollhouses suffer much more radically than dolls at the hands of amateur restorer who smother them with modern plastic paints, nylon carpets and harshly colored wallpapers, having stripped out all that was faded, original and beautiful. It is very easy to understand how such vandalism occurs- the scratched battered and roughly furnished model almost begs to be improved and unfortunately this is what generations of eager children and their parents have proceeded to do. A fragile doll might be redressed, but its wax or china face is unlikely to be repainted, whereas the dollhouse facade seems to beg every person able to hold a paintbrush to set to work!

Frequently lovely dollhouses are found covered with layers of paint, papers, lithographed scraps, tape, resin glues and plastic decorations.faced with such an accumulation the only solution open to the restorer is to strip down the model to as near its original condition as possible. The great temptation to which we all succumb at times is to arrive home in triumph with a purchase and at once begin to pull away the new papers and scratch at the paintwork in order to achieve an immediate improvement. The more sensible and rewarding course is instead quietly to study the house from all angles to discover any clues that might help to trace the original owner, such as fragments of old letters used to level a floor and purchased into fire baskets or even and old removal man’s label. Some children wrote their names on the back of the house or on pieces of furniture and this information might also forge a chain in a link that will lead you back to the last owner. Auction houses are now very reluctant to disclose the name of the vendor to purchasers and also frequently lose the original documentation that accompanied the houses.

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Collecting and restoring dollhouses

Possibly the most refreshing aspect of dollhouse collecting is that this is the one are where there is no segregation of either age or sex among the enthusiasts: dolls tend to be mainly the province of women, and soldiers and trains that of men and boys, but in the miniature house or room the interests converge, and many a model is seen to profit from a complete family’s enthusiasm and skills. The purchase of a reasonably old house is not prohibitively expensive in relation to the price of other antique toys. Houses have not escalated in price as dolls have during the last ten years and very attractive nineteenth century models can still be bought for less than a single, very common doll. The relative stability of prices in this sphere is due mainly to the fact that the sheer size makes it difficult and expensive for dealers to transport them to America and Europe, and they are often not as immediately saleable as a small doll or a tin toy because they consume much needed space in a modern home. For these reasons a miniature dollhouse or one that is small enough to stand on a shelf or side table will often command a price completely out of line with the workmanship involved in tis construction, while a huge model that is well detailed will sell quite cheaply.

Though it is usually possible to suggest some price guidelines for dolls, the dollhouses are much more unpredictable, as some will pass through the specialist sales with scarcely a bid, while on another day a model of exactly the same type will arouse feverish competition and a high realization. As with dollhouse dolls, the best advice is to acquire the finest example you can afford at the time, and above all, purchase only what really appeals as it may take several years before the item can be resold at a profit.

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French dollhouse furniture

Many historical French toys were made in poor conditions, in the rooms and slums of the Maris and Menilmontant, where the shadowy out workers employed by the larger companies lived. These workers were supplied by the factory owners with lengths of wire and scrapes of wood and metal which they soldered together to make into attractive object which they delivered in huge baskets once a week, reluctant even to give their names, as they lived in constant fear of the authorities and the police.

The majority of contemporary reports regarding French manufacture of dollhouses concentrates mainly upon ‘menages’, but a few of the furniture makers were also acknowledged, such as the Widow Fialont of 16 rue de Choiseul and Mademoiselle JL Bereux of 21 Rue de Hanovre, both of Paris. At the Antwerp exhibitions of 1885 it was connented that a large number of miniature white wood pieces were made in the Forest of Compiegne in the Department of L’Aisne, whose products competed to some extent with those of St Cloud, though made with less finesse

The most authoritative account of French dollhouse rooms and their furnishings was provided by Henri D’Allemagne in his account of the Paris Exhibition of 1900, at which he and a group of enthusiastic early collectors had assembled the exhibit. In his general information, except that relating to Duke Albrecht’s house, which he thought was still in existence, is reasonably accurate but as so many of the pieces that he describes were sold or lost after the exhibitions, it is difficult to be categorical especially as there was already a substantial trade in forged items. With a collector’s inherent mistrust of items that appear to be completely unique, one cannot help but wonder whether all the items referred to were in fact authentic. Certainly a number of the settings were especially constructed for the exhibition in order to display more exactly pieces in their correct time scale, and as our knowledge of the items is derived from contemporary illustrations, it is inevitable that there should be some disquiet. Be this as it may, d’Allegmange’s account is a useful source of information on the early development of French dollhouse rooms and miniatures, as so few actual examples exist, we are forced back on his observations which were themselves based on the researches of Alfred Franklin, published in the series ‘La Vie Privee d’Autrefois’ .

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Early dollhouses in France

Various chroniclers offer tantalising descriptions of the early French production of dollhouses. Heroard, personal physician to the Dauphin, later Louis XXI, making several mentions of miniatures that the young prince owned and in particular describing several model rooms that belonged to the Dauphin’s sister, such as a somewhat ghoulish setting that showed Judith killing Holofernes. Madam de Maintenon, mistress of Louis XIV, also possessed a very sumptuously equipped model room which she later converted to a penitent’s closet. There is also an eighteenth century convent room at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, furnished with a four poster bed hung with curtains to protect her from draughts. The wax headed nun sits reading a devotional book surrounded by religious emblems. Such rooms were in themselves devotional tableaux, and a few in light vein found their way  into children’s rooms, where their presence was expected to act as a spiritual curb on a headstrong child. In secular mood, at the house of Madame de Sevigne in Paris, is a miniature room in which the figure of Voltaire stands.

The assembling of miniatures, though never as popular in France as in Holland, attracted many of the nobility, and Louis XIV, following his father’s example, delighted in such items. Among the royal collection was a menage consisting of a brazier with eight dishes, a small basket made to resemble wickerwork, four torches, five chairs, an armchair and a table, all made from silver, enamel and gold. There was also several figures to serve in the menage. He possessed a market scene of the same type, with nine stalls and figures made of enamel. A menage, usually a box or some form of container filled with small objects, such as tea sets or cooking pots, is a peculiarly French ty and was made in a variety of substances to suit the pockets of all classes of people. The boxes given to Louis XII when as child and catalogued by Heroard contained pewter objects, dinner services and fine Nevers glass. D’Allemagne, in his discussion of the 1849 and 1855 Exhibitions, groups together kitchens and menages as by that time their manufacture was in the hands of the  men who were creating pieces for the enjoyment of children rather than adults.

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Early dollhouse furniture in France

The very ephemeral quality of French work seems to have extended into dollhouse commercially produced furniture, and is at once alluring and irritating, as so many charming pieces were often decorated with embossed or gilded paper, almost impossible to restore when damaged so that wile we admire an art form that could create such extravagant objects from the most basic materials, we sigh for the many colorful plenishments long since destroyed.

Even int the eighteenth century, manufacturers were already making an ingenious use of cheap materials to represent other finer substances, so that the late nineteenth century furniture makers who glued on oak grained or satin finished paper were working in an almost traditional idiom for inexpensive but eye catching items of this kind. French children would have hated the ‘strong toys’ of which the British makers were so proud and would have considered them both ill designed and crudely constructed. Their own light, insubstantial miniatures exactly matched their silk and lace decorated frocks and their lavishly costumed dolls, while the much plainer dress of British and American children suited the sensible furniture of solid wood, made to withstand much rougher play.

One of the earliest French houses still in original condition was in the collection of Monsieur Ehrman. The dollhouse, which represented middle class French life, stood 78 inches wide and 39 inches high and contained four rooms. It’s doll inhabitants were not the patrician figures usually associated with cabinet models but somewhat coarse peasant types, whose womenfolk wore pointed black felt hats and tight bodices with padded sleeves. Over the main door was the date ’1680′, the entrance itself containing a shuttered window so that visitors ringing the bell could be examined before gaining admittance.

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Collecting French dollhouses

Few French collectors possess any authenticated examples of dollhouses made before 1850 and it was not until the last quarter of the century that such models were commercially made, though rooms, often of the most basic construction were produced in some number. Representations of the salon, that most peculiarly French institution, have remained the most popular, the art of conversation being cultivated and elaborated into a virtual art form, mastery of which was obviously of great social benefit to any ambitious woman, as the memory of the ‘salonnieres’ of the eighteenth century, exercising power over men of great influence was still strong, and the cultivation of convestation of the most exquisite and delicate form remained a great ideal. Though the perfection of eighteenth century salon became debased int eh nineteenth century, some of the old atmosphere seems to have lingered and the apartment has the air of cultured refinement quite unlike that of the somewhat staid British drawing room. It was consequently little wonder that children so enjoyed assembling the salons and peopling them with nicely dressed figures, in imitation of their mother’s attitude to this most important room.

Parisian children were particularly fortunate as they could select furniture and accessories form many specialist toyshops that closed on only one day of the year and remained open from eight in the morning until eight-thirty int he evening. Their stock of beautifully made miniatures of ivory, silver, and porcelain were almost as much of a treat for the adults who escorted the children and who were able to appreciate the skill involved in creating effective items from the cheapest and most basic materials. In the second half of the century there was also a number of magazines aimed at the young girl and her dolls, which among the patterns and instructions for miniature clothes, also included many designs for furniture for model rooms. In some instances the child was expected to enlarge the design herself but at other times the printed outlines could be glued to card and then scored and bent into shape. Pot stands, chairs, chimney pieces and tables could all be made int his way and decorated with silk, gold-bordered papers and fringes to give a much more substantial effect.

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French dollhouses

French affection for miniature scenes that are contained in small frames or display cases has been obvious for several centuries, but curiously there is little traditional manufacture of complete model dollhouses. Like the Germans, the urban French often lived in flats, so that models representing individual rooms would have provided the child with a much more understandable picture of actual life than the houses favoured by British and American manufactuers. The French girl in the nineteenth century was as closely guarded by her parents as a family treasure and rarely allowed out alone, so that she continued to amuse herself indoors with the exquisite costuming of dolls and the arrangement of rooms until she left the schoolroom, the needlework involved in such projects often being seen as a preparation for adult life. After a few years in a convent school, girls spent most of their time in their mother’s care, as all the empahasis was on creating attractive young women with a knowledge of the social arts, such as letter-writing and embroidery, and several of the lavishly equipped rooms with carefully stitched carpets and fringed curtains serve as reminders of the long hours which mothers and daughters often expended on such activity.

Prints and tradecards dating to the last quarter of the nineteenth century show beautifully dressed children playing with their elegantly costumed dolls and colourfully furnished rooms in the setting of the drawing-room and rarely in the nursery and we are reminded that these girls were not as completely segregated from their parents during the day as those of a similar class in Britain who were expected to amuse themselves in the nursery, a room with plenty of space for the larger toys such as rocking-horses and dollhouses. It is this very basic difference in the lifestyle of French children that most probably accounts for the scarcity of model houses, as few adults would have liked their reception rooms continually filled with large models, whereas a room, sometimes with folding sides, could be easily moved out of sight.

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Bathrooms and other special features in early dollhouses

Dollhouses with working bathrooms were obviously a great novelty in the 1890s, and for those unable to afford a completely plumbed villa, there were small sets sometimes accompanies by a tank. Though model rooms were never as popular in Britain as on the Continent, the novelty of running water encouraged the sale of a number of working kitchens and bathrooms.

The quality of these late nineteenth century miniatures was obvious to adults, and many tables set with china and glass, dolls in attractively gilded chairs and dressing tables fully equipped with tapersticks and powder bowls were displayed in parlour cabinets or set out under glass shades.

Reminiscences and contemporary accounts suggest that the toyshop Hamley’s was the main supplier of dollhouses and furniture, and in 1901 they offered such additions as a greenhouse complete with plants on a sill and arranged in pots around the base. A reporter from ‘Girls’ Realm’ photographed one of their larger houses, which represented a modern mansion, built half of brick and half of painted stone. The nine rooms and staircase were elegantly carpeted and the model was fitted with every modern improvement.

There were many complaints in Edwardian magazines concerning the over-indulgence of children, they were being given too many toys of an expensive nature: their educations was becoming too easy as the theory of learning through play was becoming more and more widely used and spoiled infants were consequently becoming more common. In 1913 it was commented that the toys available were marvels of ingenuity and workmanship but doubted if they were as much appreciated as the old fashioned dolls and wooden toys of a few generations before. Many it was felt were almost too fine for common nursery use and tended to fall to pieces when so used. That most extravagant of toys, the dollhouse, was subjected to frequent criticism as it was so popular.

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19th century dollhouse making companies

Toy factories in the nineteenth century created dozens of model dollhouses in imitation of popular architecture. Town houses, sometimes several storys high, were the best sellers, as they mirrored the designs of the little girls’ homes: country cottages were comparatively rare, indicating the great increase in the town bred middle classes. These town houses, with their rows of neatly curtained windows and brass door knockers are still very popular, as their shallow depth can be accommodated in most homes.

Their general construction was also much lighter and from the mid-1880s fretwork was often added to the facades. Plywood also began to be used in the 1890s and though prone to attack by woodworm, made the production of model houses even more economical.

Though the area of commercial production is of paramount importance in this period, the home made model dollhouse continued to interest and the constructor was now provided with a number of readily available accessories and tools.

‘Little Folk’s magazine was particularly anxious to educate its readers in simple handicrafts and in 1894 provided instructions for making the cork and pin furniture that was found in so many houses. Sometimes horse chestnuts of a suitably flat shape were substituted for cork, but the method remained the same.

Larger items of dollhouse furniture could be made of cork, whereas chestnut furniture was limited to stools and tables, for a cork bed a rectangle was cut, covered in fabric and provided with a row of pins at each side. If an adult was available to give some assistance, more adventurous pieces made form wishbones decorated with silk and embroidery could be attempted though these were much less popular than the simple pin items.

Instructions were given in several ladies’ and children’s magazines in the 1890s for the making of a dollhouse cradle from an eggshell decorated with ribbon and lace, and for beds and cradles made from boxes with the lids stood upright at one end to form the bedheads and suitably decorated and embroidered. Such items are still encountered in some number and have to be assessed on their condition and quality, though their value is slight in comparison with the commercial items that were made with so little effort.

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