Folding Doll House

McLOUGHLIN BROTHERS.  FOLDING DOLL HOUSE.

New York: 1894. Folding portfolio. (12 x 12 inches). 11 chromolithographic images. First edition.

An ingenious design for children, meant to be shelved with books and unfold to reveal walls and floors of four rooms (dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and parlor).  The rooms are repleat with aesthetic touches, shown on chromolithographic plates, which remain very bright.  Published by McLoughlin Brothers, using U.S. Patent 513,688, issued to Eleanor McCulloch Smith of Baltimore, this is a wonderful display item, a fitting example of the taste in interior decoration of the day.  According to the patent statement, the things that make this design distinctive from earlier designs are "the series of partitions between the rooms, preferably four, radiating from a common hinging point so that they may be folded together like the leaves of a book when not in use.  Another feature is the hinging to the lower edge of each partition of a floor piece which simulates the completed floor of the room."  Considering the potential for heavy wear to this toy, it is in remarkably very good condition, and the interior display of the rooms remain exceptionally bright.

 

SOLD