The Tynietoy
Colonial Mansion |
This Tynietoy Colonial Mansion is the same one
featured in Antique Doll Collector's December 2006 issue, and was
owned for many years by noted collector Dorothy Dixon. The house and
its amazing one-of-a kind dollhouse dolls are shown in Evelyn
Ackerman's book about miniature dolls and I was enchanted with the
dolls the first time I saw them pictured there. Several years later,
I was thrilled to see them in person when the house became the
property of Becky and Andy Ourant, who commissioned me to build new
facades to replace the ones that had been missing for many years. I
took my time as I searched for quality materials and did the
painstaking work of cutting out all those windows, filling and
sanding imperfections and experimenting with paint colors, all the
while coveting the house as it sat looking empty and forlorn in my
dining room. As work neared completion (some six months later), Andy
mentioned that they had re-arranged their furniture and he had no
idea where it was going to fit when they got it back. I was happy to
store it while they figured that out and eventually they decided
they wanted the space more than they wanted the house - and all
its contents, including the amazing dolls! While this is the
most expensive single purchase I have ever made for my
collection, I felt the price was still advantageous and I was well
aware that there are other collectors who would have paid twice what
I did without even blinking, so my husband has to wait another year
to replace his truck and our planned trip to London has been
postponed yet again. No matter, the object of my Quixotic
desires now occupies a place of honor in the Mural Room. I am
keeping everything that came with the house, but I have redecorated
it a little to incorporate some things from my own collection and
added curtains, etc. I've been so happily occupied with the interior
that I still haven't attached the hinges for the roof! |
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When Dorothy Dixon owned this house, there
were no front panels and part of the roof had been removed. She had
wooden frames applied over the open front for sliding glass panels
to keep out the dust. I made these facades based on photocopies of
original blueprints owned by Ann Meehan, and studied photos of Flora
Gill Jacobs' Mansion. The window moldings are painted to match
the originals on the sides of the house, and the dimensional
shutters are attached with tiny nails. The new roof sections are
painted to match the Spanish Brown color that was applied by someone
else over the original grey paint and I think I will try to go back
to that grey. I made the walled garden on the right about five years
ago for my New England Townhouse. |
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I actually enjoyed painting the fanlight
and sidelights on this classical doorway and it was very pleasant
for me to use my father's old drafting tools when I penciled in the
semi-circles, but it was nerve-racking actually painting all those
curved lines so closely together. Do come in! |
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Since the butler is busy upstairs,
Mother is greeting visitors in the entrance hall. The very fine
English perambulator is tucked under the stairs and is in excellent
condition considering it does appear in the early photographs of the
original house. If you are unfamiliar with the story of this
collection, the dolls and the furniture have been together for about
80 years and were captured in an early photograph with a beautiful
Tynietoy mansion complete with TWO gardens, but the original mansion
that contained them was lost somewhere in history. After Dorothy
Dixon acquired this collection, she found this early mansion on the
west coast. The hallway is furnished with a painted highboy, green
vase, sconces, rugs and an umbrella stand from my collection
while the card table, screen, green painted chairs, the green
telephone and the collection of French porcelains on the
highboy are from Dorothy's collection. The carpet in the back is a fragment of a
needlepoint handbag I found in damaged condition at a flea market,
and has a nice worn feeling to it. |
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I just
love this doll. Her expression is one of utter serenity. She is
wearing a silk blouse with a ruffle beneath her Italian knit suit
and she wears a pearl choker. There was no corresponding father doll
when Dorothy acquired the collection. These dolls are so unique I do
not think I could find someone to make a convincing replacement, so
I've decided that the patriarch of this brood is away on an extended
yacht race and has left everything in the capable charge of this
charming lady. |
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The parlor is furnished primarily with Dorothy's
things, but I've added the Tynietoy secretary and the elaborately
patterned felt rug. I also place my Mt. Vernon harpsichord in this
room - I've waited a long time for a house big enough for that
piece. All the lovely oil paintings in this room are Tynietoy, and
there is a small sterling hinged case containing playing cards on
the Mt. Vernon tilt-top tripod table . |
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I've had this Mt. Vernon harpsichord stored away for
years, waiting for the day when I might own a Colonial Mansion. I
think this piece dates from the later years of production and, as
far as I know, there wasn't a specific bench or stool made to go
with it. Revolving piano stools are a Victorian invention
that allows musicians more flexibility when playing very expressive
music like Chopin or Schubert, etc, where the entire keyboard
needs to be comfortably reachable. The ceramic parrot was
Dorothy's. |
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The rare maple grained Windsor chairs that were
previously in this room have been moved over to my Nantucket house
and replaced with Chippendale chairs with painted seats. I also
added the oval firescreen and the large sideboard on the back wall,
which is maple and matches the knife boxes very nicely. Both the
ladies depicted in the two oil paintings are dressed in
yellow |
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The roomy kitchen features three
different Windsor chairs painted green (oh, bliss!) and there
is an unusual cast metal wall phone. I've only added a few
foodstuffs here, and the Thermos. |
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This close-up shows the telephone and the lovely Grace
Drayton watercolor landscape. There are other Grace Drayton pictures
in the children's rooms. |
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Because the sink is chipped on one side, it was
tricky finding a good layout for the bathroom. I added the Tynietoy
medicine cabinet and the painted pitcher and bowl sitting on the
unusual painted demilune table. The toddler girl has figured out how
to climb out of her crib, maybe to get a better look at the Grace
Drayton picture hanging over the fireplace. The bath towels draped
over the rim of the tub are initialed "D.D." for
Dorothy. |
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Just off the bathroom, the master bedroom has been
decorated in shades of pink and pastel green and features a rare
four-poster bed and three oil paintings depicting floral
arrangements against a black background. The two small ones came
with the house and the larger one over the fireplace was a much
appreciated gift from Gloria Hinkel, founder of the Delaware
Toy and Miniature Museum. The upholstered chair is one of the few
non-Tynietoy furnishings in the house. The lace curtains are antique
panels that came from another old dollhouse and are just a touch too
long for the eye hooks that were already mounted over all the
windows, but they add warmth and coziness to the rooms even if they
puddle on the floor a little. |
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One of my favorite rooms in the house is the
old-fashioned bedroom set aside for the grandparents. I added the
canopy bed with its pretty floral upholstery and matching painted
chair, the hooked rug from Maynard Manor, and the knitted throw
keeping Grandmother cozy while she reads the Times. A Tynietoy oil
portrait is mounted over the grained desk, and the other oval
paintings are floral arrangements on cream backgrounds. The chest of
drawers to the left of the bed is a unique Tynietoy piece not shown
in any catalogues, but bears the Tynietoy imprint. |
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Another view of the grandparents sharing a tender
moment after he has checked her heartbeat. The butterfly table has
crisply turned legs and I love the lampshade with birds silhouetted
by the moon. The old-fashioned washstand in the background is fitted
with a Limoges pitcher and bowl. |
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Out in the hallway, the butler is
pausing before bringing a cup of tea to Grandmother. The folding
screen by the stairs is wonderfully decorated with a hand-painted
map of the world. A sweet oil painting of a young girl in a green
dress is mounted on the wall above the desk. |
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This bedroom set is a fairly recent acquisition with
the bed, dressing table and rocker painted a soft greenish gray,
and I was pleased to find the chest of drawers in almost the
exact same color in the collection I recently purchased in
Pennsylvania. This is a teenager's room with a blue candlestick
phone for her personal use, and a little dog very similar to the one
shown in the picture next to the Tynietoy lamp. When Andy and
Becky agreed to sell me the house, my husband and I hauled it
upstairs from the dining room to its new location in the dollhouse
mural room, yet it did not really feel like it was mine. As I
unpacked the dozens of boxes of furniture and accessories that came
with the house, I was stunned to find the lace trimmed coverlet
which now dresses this bed with the name "Suzie" embroidered in red
across the top. This is a nickname reserved for my closest family
and friends, and finding it among the unpacked boxes made me
blissfully recognize that this house was indeed meant to be mine one
day! |
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The attic hallway is cheerfully decorated with red
Windsor chairs, a red folding screen and predominently red carpets.
Even the Tynietoy paintings feature hunters dressed in red riding
jackets. It can get pretty warm on the third floor so all the rooms
up here have electric fans, with the largest one here in the
hallway. The corner chair is a very rare piece which I have never
encountered before. |
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The two little girls share this other attic
bedroom which is decorated in yellow and blue. I had the sleigh bed
set for some years and like how the pieces complement the wing chair
that came with the collection. The cotton calico curtains were made
from a pretty dress my aunt wore as a girl some 50-60 years ago. One
more Grace Drayton picture is mounted between the windows, and a
vintage goldfish bowl rests on the rare Tynietoy round table. The
china jug of flowers on the chest was my mother's and I've had it in
various dollhouses over the past - gulp - 45 years or more. One of
the reasons I adore these dolls is because the little girl with dark
hair looks almost exactly like my grandmother did as a girl and I
almost wonder if she might have posed for the sculptor - she did
grow up in Rhode Island! |
An acquisition with an
original TynieToy letter
I recently had the opportunity to purchase a
collection of early Tynietoy furniture that had been in the same
family for 86 years. One of the reasons I found the collection so
interesting was that it included a letter on Tynietoy stationery
written and signed by Amey Vernon in June of 1922. On the front of
the letter she stated that she was sending a box of “samples” for
his criticism as to design and finish. I found this quite
fascinating as the letter predates Sidney’s Burleigh’s re-design of
the line in 1923, so it appears that Tynietoy approached others
about improving their designs before cementing their association
with Burleigh. She also asked the gentleman if he would try to make
a thatched roof for their crèche and could he supply 50 of them? It
was obvious there had been some previous contact between them as she
mentioned she had not yet tried the brand of paint he had earlier
recommended to her. While we’ve known that the painting of furniture
was farmed out like a cottage industry, it is interesting to
consider that perhaps some of the construction work we’ve assumed
was done in Tynietoy’s own workshops may have been outsourced as
well.
On the back of the letter is a
hand-written inventory of the pieces that were sent along with
prices. Most of the prices match those listed in the oldest
catalogue I have, but some are lower and the highboy is more
expensive. It was surprising to me that the collection seems to be
complete with nothing lost over the years, but a few of
the pieces were slightly damaged or repaired. The seller told
me the recipient of the letter had been his mother’s uncle,
who had been a woodworker, and the furniture was given to his mother
when she was a little girl living in Mechanicsburg, PA. He’d also
made her a rather crude dollhouse that I left behind. Other items
that were added to the collection include a German bisque-limbed
gentleman, various non-Tynietoy accessories, and several pieces of
Roger Williams furniture, including a charming yellow blanket chest
with painted floral decoration.
Some, but not all of of the Tynietoy furniture
is made of plywood and there are several items that differ from the
typical designs we are so familiar with. The cradle lacks an apron
under the bonnet with no signs that there ever was one, and it is
wider than expected, but it does have the familiar tufted silk
bedding. The banjo clock is noticeably chunky with wooden ornaments
instead of stamped brass, but the sides of the pieces are painted
with as much detail as the front, which is quite charming. The
mirrors are not exactly the same size as later
examples.
The Sheraton settee has a rather awkward apron cut as
one piece with the two center legs, but what impresses me is how
many of the designs seem to remain unchanged after 1923, such as the
kitchen furniture, the sideboards, sleigh bed and most of the
chairs. I also found it interesting that the rush-seat settee lacks
the front rail and is painted yellow rather than the usual black or
red, and the high chair is painted a very dark
green.
One of the most charming pieces is the sewing table
that is delicately painted on the top, front, both sides and along
the length of all the legs. The design is not the expected floral
bouquet, but a charming woven basket of flowers. So New
England!
Negotiating the purchase of these items was a little
tricky because the seller had a videotape of the Antiques Roadshow
segment with its greatly inflated appraisal, and he wanted twice as
much for the collection as I felt it was worth. Also, it was
difficult to assess the value of the letter that came with it. I
ended up paying pretty close to what I think the items would be
worth in the marketplace but I am delighted to have the letter and
its provenance and I plan to do some more research on the man who
first received this furniture from Amey Vernon this winter.
I feel it's important to note that for many years,
collectors have repeated the assertion that Sidney Burleigh
redesigned the Tynietoy line in 1923 and at that time,
standardized the scale at 1" to the foot. But these well-documented
pieces from 1922 demonstrate that Tynietoys were already
standardized in scale by then and most remained exactly the same
after 1923, with perhaps an improvement in the finishing
techniques and the type of wood used.
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These
pieces are all documented as being made by Tynietoy in
1922. |
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This rare mahogany chair made by TynieToy was
copied from an original in the historic home of Sophia Smith, the
founder of Smith College. It is one of three in my collection and a
few years ago, I acquired a copy of the original shop drawing for
this chair. It is in 1.25" scale and measures 5" tall.
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