My mother was born in 1921. My grandfather loved working in his wood shop and built this dollhouse for my mother to play with, probably by when she was seven years old in 1928. On a snowy night in the early 1950s, with my family in the car, and with trailer behind, we brought the dollhouse from the family Bronx home (they built about 1890) to my home in Wilton, Connecticut. I remember the flat tire on the trailer on the Merritt Parkway on a busy holiday weekend. Measuring about 4 by 3 feet at the base, and about 2 1/2 feet high, the dollhouse has doors opening up to the four rooms and two story hallway. It moved with me in the Navy for sometime, and my daughter played with it in Haddonfield, NJ, in the early 1980s. My Dad picked it up at some point and took it to Florida for my step-sister’s girls to play with. Wrapping it tight, my Dad brought it back to me about 1996 when my bookshop was in New Preston, CT. I then moved to Walpole, NH, where it has been stored, unwrapped, for another 22 years. I had kept separately two boxes of furniture (unopened since the 1980s): some my grandfather made, some great Strombecker pieces, Arcade bath and kitchen items – and cigar boxes of unique accessories now approaching 100 years old.
The pictures below show the dollhouse where it has been for 22 years, then wrapping opened to show you the back side – and then some of the furnishings. First, wrapped:
On small hinges, one door is off on this side, and possibly one or two on the front side – I believe they are all laid inside. There was an even higher peak on the right of the image above, but we cut it down so the dollhouse would fit through a modern doorway. As I recall we built a “widow’s walk” to put in place there, and the original roof part could wrapped inside or gone. You can see an electrical cord in the lower left leading to a transformer that then steps down the power to the electric lights in the dollhouse. You can see the chimney on the left, just barely. Yes, fireplace in center of the large living room on the first floor. On the other side is front door with a walkway leading up to it. I will need some help to move it around to unwrap and photograph the “front side” with entrance door and walkway.
Wrapping off for first time in almost 30 years.
and, upon opening I found some newer furniture probably left behind when my step-sister’s girls “played house.” Packing paper was placed in each room to minimize movement.
Originally the dollhouse sat on a custom table/stand which was low so a child could stand and play, or sit on a low stool. I last remember the base in the attic of my Wilton, CT, home where I played with the dollhouse, and my Dad’s Lionel Standard Gauge trains on the floor adjoining the dollhouse. That base I last saw in Connecticut about 1964. Below some of the amazing Strombecker furniture – marked “StromBecker / Playthings / Genuine Walnut.”
Needing to know more about Strombecker history, here is some of what I found, “… Strombecker was the trade name used by Strombeck-Becker Manufacturing Co. of Moline, Ill. The company was incorporated in 1913 by J.F. Strombeck and R.D. Becker. At first the company made wooden handles and tent poles, but it ventured into toys in 1919 and dollhouse furniture in 1931. … Strombecker dropped out of the toy business entirely in 1962. Strombecker doll and dollhouse furniture is well made and very collectible.” These early pieces bring some good money. I find the Radio Cabinet (in rear on left) currently selling from $20 to $50. The doll bed (left corner) is on eBay for $38 to $89. Wide range, but value, and I have 14 early 1930s pieces. I can now guess my grandfather first made furniture for the dollhouse, but they purchased these items as they came out in the early 30s, and possibly had some disposable income after the Depression..
below some of the pieces of furniture my grandfather built. I forgot to include the dining room sideboard (intricate). Yes, fragile, some breakage, but in the various cigar boxes are many pieces ready to be reworked.
he probably made this upholstered furniture as well. I found in another box the foot stool for the single lounge chair.
Below THE KITCHEN furniture – Arcade stove and washer, and other pieces (dining set, icebox, side cabinet) made by my grandfather. I find only one stove for sale for $125, and can find nothing on the Arcade 1010 washing machine with wringer on top.
and the room above the kitchen is the bathroom. Also here is some baby room furniture which appears to have been made by him as well. Arcade sold the bathroom as a set of three pieces seen below right — I see prices ranging from $65 to $200 for the set.
and, three cigar boxes of some of the most amazing, and small, kitchen, dining room items, and more including rugs, hanging picture and the like. Small things like this do not survive. Scroll down to see the amazing fun things in the first cigar box to the left — serving pieces for the dining room, food for kitchen cupboard – too much fun.
The below four images are some of the items in the one cigar box — count the pieces seldom seen, and “do the math.”
Thank you for looking — Interested? Come take a look.
I would like to keep this all together with the history – $995
RAY BOAS
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Ray Boas, Bookseller 