Halloween Doll Club Meeting & Luncheon

I hosted my doll club, The Renaissance Doll Study Club, for our October meeting.  Of course, I had to do some fast dusting and tidying of the doll room which usually tends more towards chaos.  I preset the dining room table for a buffet to keep it simple and I did my program on the Christian Hacker Shops.  Sooo...that sounded great in theory until it occurred to me I had to move them downstairs for the talk.  The shops have a lot of "little" things in them!  Lol.  All in all a good time was had.

 

The Shops set up for the program....all the little things made it safely down.  These shops were made by The Christian Hacker Company in the late 1800s early 1900s.  

Meanwhile up in the Doll Room....

My collection of Kitchen miniatures resides in an antique Hoosier cabinet.  I have a lot of fun setting up the displays.  I always place dogs in the settings...every doll needs a dog!

Even though I have not started the monster restoration project that is the Mystery House...I had some fun setting it up for viewing....

Christian Hacker Grocery Shop Redressed

I spent some time cleaning the large Grocery Store.  I also got the Christian Hacker book and found this shop (424/4) listed in the book.  So I can now confirm that this is indeed made by the Christian Hacker Factory sometime around 1905-1907.  Here are some fun pics of all the items put back in the store.

 The Front Windows

The Cheese Display

The Bakery Display

The Back Pantry stocked with meats and butter

Hat Shop Re-Dressed

I spent some time cleaning the Hat Shop room box...it took a long time with Q-tips!  But it looks much nicer now and the mirrors and glass are nice and shiny.  I have not fixed the door to the glass cabinet yet.  I need to buy new hinges for it, so for now it is tacked in place with museum putty.

These glass shelves spin when the clockwork mechanism is wound up and released. 

I have a large collection of blown glass bottles from glass artist Sue Ellen Fowler.  I have been collecting them for 25 years or more.  I think they look wonderful in this shop, so I decided to make the left side of the shop a perfumery shop and the right side the Millinery shop.

Christian Hacker Grocery Store from 1905

Here is the largest and most spectacular of the 3 shops I bought from Angels Attic.   It is an Art Nouveau style Grocery Store.  When I first started visiting Angel's Attic I would always go to see this shop.  It was my absolute favorite thing in the museum.  I feel very fortunate to be its current caretaker!

It is huge, measuring just shy of 4 feet in length.   I believe it to be a Christian Hacker shop from 1905.  I am still researching this one as well as the Hat Shop in the previous post.  They are identical in motif and match the one in the Nurnberg museum.  It is that museum listing I am using to date and identify the maker of this shop.

  

As you can see the back doors open as do the closet/side doors.   The mirror back panels have some age related crackling to the silvered backing.  The mirror glass is in fine shape.

Below is a close up of the door knob.  The hardware is the same on all the doors.

The two front windows are hinged and they swing open.  You can see the 1 damaged drawer in this photo.  The screw on the outside panel is for a doorbell.  It came off in transit and I need to reattach it.  The shop was re-papered in the past, both the walls and the floor. I also think it was carefully repainted in some areas.  Most notably on the decorative panel above the glass doors.

Side view (Both sides are identical)

Top down view

Here are the markings on the bottom of the shop:

This is a picture of the Grocery Store as it was displayed in the Museum.  All the contents and dolls came with the shop.  Now that I have finished dusting and cleaning it, I will be setting it up with all the little food stuffs.

Here is the link to the similar shop in the Nurnberg Toy Mueseum:

Lydia Bayer Toy Museum Nurnberg

Christian Hacker Hat Shop 1890-1910

I recently acquired this fabulous shop from a dollhouse museum that is closing.  It was hard to get much info on the piece but from my research I believe it to be made by the Christian Hacker factory in Nurnberg, Germany about 1905.  There is a shop in a museum in Germany that is very similar and I have used that info to date this piece.  I am still searching for a toy catalog or other listing from that time period to verify it.

The shop needs a good cleaning but has all its original wall papers and floor papers.  2 drawers are missing and the glass door on the side shelf unit is loose as the hinges are missing.  Its just propped up in the pictures.

The shop has a hidden surprise...the shelves in the back of the shop rotate via a mechanism in the top of the shop.  You wind it up with a key and then pull out the wire lever on the left side of the top shelf.  The mechanism still works perfectly...though it makes a lot of noise and could probably be cleaned and oiled.

These photos show the marks on the bottom.

This is the shop as it was displayed in the Museum.  All the furniture, dolls and display items came with the shop.  Once I give the shop a good cleaning I will set it up again with all these lovely things.

 I also acquired 2 other shops and will get those pictures posted soon.

Here is the link to the similar shop in the Nurnberg Toy Mueseum:
Lydia Bayer Toy Museum Nurnberg