Dolls' Houses Past & Present

My name is Fiona and I live in the North Island of New Zealand.  I am interested (i.e. a mad collector) of a wide range of old toys including Teddies, Dolls, and Dolls Houses.  I have a couple of dolls houses in my collection – both made by Tri-ang.  My favourite dolls house is my profile picture.

My interest in dolls houses stems from my childhood where my mother (also a mad collector of old toys) used to have a large Tri-ang dollhouse sitting in our garage. I loved this dolls house and played with it as a child right through to my early teens.  Unfortunately my mother decided to sell the doll house (breaking my heart in the process) because it was taking up too much room. It wasn’t until 25 years later I saw another doll house for sale on a New Zealand internet auction site that looked a lot like the one I used to love so much. I bid on it and to my delight I won it. I have had this dolls house now for about 5 years. Its interior has been partially stripped by the previous owner but the exterior remains relatively original apart from a repainted roof. The funny thing is, a few weeks ago Mum and I were sorting out some things in the basement and came across a couple of photos of her original dollshouse.  When I looked closely at the photos I thought how similar it was to the one I now owned.  When I compared the dolls house in the photo to mine, I discovered that all the hand painted flowers matched up, all the dents and holes, all the paint chips and worn areas all matched exactly.  My dolls house was the same from my childhood and it had come home to me!!