A weekend with an Antique Dollhouse.

My sister was lucky enough to acquire this beautiful antique dollhouse that once belonged to Flora Gill Jacobs. Mary asked me to help her choose furniture and accessories from her extensive collection of antique and vintage dollhouse items. I was only too happy to comply!

As soon as we opened the door Sesil took up residence in the kitchen. It was hard to get him to leave. You may think, when seeing this picture, that this is a small room. But no, it's a big cat. Each room measures 17.25" wide. x 19.5" deep. and 14" tall. The house is 44" tall.

The house has four rooms, but no staircase. That leaves room for lots of furniture. Flora added the wallpaper after she got the house in the 1970s. The interior had been painted white when it came to her. Flora dated the house to the middle of the 19th century, because of it's materials and design.

The first furniture we tried was this wonderful handmade dining room suite from Germany. It has elaborate filigree cut outs on each piece. It looked great in the room, but it is a large scale and as we didn't have other pieces this size we couldn't furnish the entire house in this scale, so we decided to try a large 1/12th scale instead.

I fell in love with these two chairs. The detail is wonderful. They are about 5" high, so they are quite large, but they work very well in this house.

Here is the living room fully furnished right down to the antique Christmas tree. Mary made the chandelier.

Once we got Sesil out of the kitchen we had great fun choosing the furniture and accessories. The large tin stove is really too big for this house, but we couldn't resist putting it in. The room has many different scales in the furniture and accesories. I kept asking to Mary how that little china doll managed to pour boiling water from that huge kettle on the stove. I think the kitchen has the charm one often sees in very old dollhouses where the scale of the contents is not an issue. Mary also made the chandelier in this room.

The children's room has German furniture for the main pieces. The wing chair is American and may be a Goldilocks piece. The chandelier and other accessories are antique.

The second bedroom is furnished in white. The chairs are marked on the bottom "Pupsi Wordtmann Hamburg". I am not sure, but I think this was a toy shop in that city. The vintage furniture is newer than the house, but the scale is perfect for it. We have put a miniature Sesil on the chair. He is drawing attention from a curious dog that seems to be made of glass or perhaps lava.

The pretty china doll is about to enjoy some coffee before she tackles the tasks of the day.

Another look at the children's room.

I love the metal hot water bottle and the ribbon tied towels on the little cart. We think that most of the furniture we have put in the house is German. The chandelier in this room is antique as are the pictures on the wall and most of the accessories.