More Bliss illustrations

Notice the teepees...Tug of War

Bliss chairs

I just find the illustrations on this dollhouse furniture so charming. They are hard to photograph because the gold printing reflects light, the red is strong, but the blue has faded  the most. Little K is missing the back.

Bliss also made furniture

Using an alphabet design. Charmingly for Children.

Top Floor Bliss House

So Not knowing quite what to do with this house,

I made it Jack and Jill's little house

and put various antique pieces in it

with new Jennifer's printable wallpaper from the '40s

and little copies of pictures on the walls from

Mother Goose and Hans Christen Andersen .

Summertime and the living is easy

You could say... it's blissful. The East Coast

The Beach House

Most Bliss dollhouses were made around the turn of the century of lithographed paper.

But it really annoys me when people walk into my house and say "Oh, I really like your bird house!" and point to this Bliss Veranda house!

They caught the ferry just in time and debarked in Oakland.

 Well, for heavens sakes! Aunt Agatha had the croup so the three guests did not feel they could proceed to the lecture at Berkeley. As it grew darker Aunt Agatha convinced the three to stay the night as she was feeling poorly.

At 5:12 AM everyone was jolted from their beds. Katie was actually thrown off the couch in the livingroom onto the floor. An earthquake began that continued with several after shocks.

The women were assisted by Aunt Agatha's caretaker, and the wooden house shook but not being made of brick, it held together with the timber passing off the tremors.

As they stood on the porch in Oakland only when they saw plumes of black smoke rising above downtown San Francisco did they become alarmed.
Ferry service was suspended as all ships sailed to aid the devestated city

Go to  .http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/photos.html  for San Francisco Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco for pictures of the City and refugee tent cities in Golden Gate Park and the Presidio.

Mystery!

Do you know what this old sachel is for? Does anyone recognize it's use?

Notice the metal encased corners, the hook and eye latches.

This is it open.

Inside
Back. I was wondering because it was donated to the Goodwill and was full of Bliss dolhouse furniture and ca. 1890- early 1900 dollhouse chairs and furniture I use in the Hacker House. It also contained a toy with a 1950's looking sticker on it. They weren't packed like a salesman's sample. Some of the pieces were broken and repaired with old celophane tape.

The Goodwill people said it was in a pile of junk unloaded in New England.

Just curious. We all know the journey from manufacturer to our houses is a long and winding road. Just wondering. It's part of the story that is the Hacker house xoxo CM

Amelia thinks about fate

She considers how suddenly her new niece, Carolena's life has changed. Married, having a child and going on a journey to unknown lands. The least she can do is give Carolena her new bonnet for her travels.

And what about her own two boys? How will they turn out?

Amelia was secretly glad they looked like her side of the family, the Porcelains, not like her husband's side of the family. The Hackers were Horsman, rubbery and the women had faces like Barbies... ah fate. None of us know what tomorrow brings.

"Hot chocolate?" asked Amelia xoxo CM

Dollhouses' Dirty Little Secret

Antique dollhouse made by the Bliss Manufacturing Company, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, VERANDA MODEL ca. 1800-1920

I might as well get this out in the open. There is one very naughty part to dollhouse collecting. Sort of the deep, dark secret to the experience.

I want to create an evocative word for this, like "Bromance". But it would have to be "Homance"
which doesn't sound good at all. It is the extreme passion aroused in the Dollhouse Collector's breast for the next conquest.

Yes we love our dolls, for Heaven's sake we even name them. Yes we cherish our houses. We scrimped to buy them, don't even begin to offer mortgages. Yes we adore our accesories. We combed God know's where to find them... get the drift
but.... then that next one catches our eye...and...
well... Bliss, and I mean that literally.