I'm lucky to have a small and manageable dollhouse show to go to right by my house: the
Hightstown Miniature Show, now in its 37th year. This is my fourth year going--I've
written about my visits before--and I've now honed my system for visiting and buying.
Here are my tips for this show, and these may apply to other similar traditional shows:
- First: SHOW UP LATE. I arrived with only 90 minutes left for the show and it was not crowded and I found a lot of things. Also, most sellers were offering 1/2 off everything since it was toward the end.
- Second: MODERN IS NOT MAINSTREAM. No one is really collecting modern, so you can find some cool styles, usually discounted. This makes the first tip even more relevant, since early birds will be hunting down Victorian quarter scale and not midcentury.
- Third: ALWAYS DO AN EXTRA LOOP AROUND, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN EVERYTHING. You haven't seen it all, trust me. I always find things in places I thought I had looked. You just overlooked them!
- Fourth: HAVE PATIENCE WITH THE DOLLAR BINS. While it might all look broken and/or dusty, you can find some gems in the plentiful dollar bins -- most sellers have some version of them.
So, all in all, it was a productive and happy experience. I do like "getting lost" in all the stuff, and there was a lot of it.
Here are my spoils!
There are some useful things here, for sure. Let's take a closer look...
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| These cool retro outdoor chairs, also pictured at the top of the post, were sold by this woman who had used them in her original dollhouse growing up in the 1960s. They are metal with plastic tubing, just like the real chairs! The pillow was from a different seller. |
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| This table and chairs were also from the same seller who had them in her house. I am wondering if they are by KAGE or Strombecker....any ideas? |
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| A comfy dog bed -- did not have one of these. Nice green rug, too. |
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| I got a very nice wooden dining table that needs a leg fixed. |
Hope you enjoyed seeing my finds.
Great finds! I love the yellow chairs. I have found that since no one around here does modern that you can get some bargains at the miniature show. I'm glad you mentioned the Doll Domiciles house. I've often wondered what happened with that project. I don't recall seeing the fully built house.
ReplyDeleteWow! They were excellent buys! Those yellow chairs are wonderful, and yes, the white wood and metal set is the same as the set shown in the Kage section of Zillner & Cooper's book (though they don't seem to sure about it!) Whatever it is, it's gorgeous - and all your other bits and pieces should come in very handy. (I look forward to seeing more of the Doll Domiciles house!)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll head over to my Zillner book to check it out. The set was $5 total -- crazy!!!
DeleteMe gusta mucho la mesa y las sillas. Buenas compras.
ReplyDeleteAwesome haul and I love the yellow chairs. Your post makes me quite excited for dolls' house show season here (and makes me feel better about projects that I've had languishing for years...)
ReplyDeleteReally nice. I hope you like my doll's house https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hasvJTDzOo
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you might help me with a question? Do you know of anyone who owns one of the MiPad houses from MIAIMminiatures? I'm saving up my pennies to get one and I'd sure love to hear his/her thoughts on the structures. Thanks so much! Love what you got at the show.
ReplyDeleteAlways love your purchases and staging! Modern is definitely not mainstream as you stated. At the Chicago Intn show this year I found very few modern furniture pieces. Did find some absolutely beautiful kitchen items from TYA (Japan) but do not think he ships to the U.S. and Minifaniberia who has a website/Etsy store - http://minifanaberia.com/. Now I need to finish a kitchen. Thanks for all your posts.
ReplyDeleteI definitely envy you for tome of your findings... sniff
ReplyDeletewhat a good work,chairs are really wonderful.....well done
ReplyDeleteModular Kitchen in Lucknow