- Estimate
- $6,000 / $8,000
44" (112 cm.) h. x 48"l. x 26"d. The all-wooden house with heavily-shingled and gabled Gothic appearance features six large rooms plus two attic rooms; the attic rooms access from hinged lifting roof panels, and rest upon a flat wooden platform with two sets of front steps. There are two front doors and a multitude of windows on all four sides of the house which are all neatly framed, and the windows are all hung on the interior with original curtains. The house roof is shingled in distinctive chamfered manner, and similar architectural accents highlight the house all over. The interior has mostly original wall and ceiling papers, interior doors which are paneled on both sides, and an extraordinary feature of floor decoration. Each floor appears to be an elaborate parquet (each is different) but upon close inspection it is revealed that each floor is actually scored and painted to appear as parquet. The house is in excellent original condition. American, circa 1890.
Background: The houses were named "Mystery Dolls Houses" by Flora Gill Jacobs, owner of the Washington Dolls' House and Toy Museum and author of several books about antique doll houses. Its earlier ownership is not known, but about 1966 it came into the possession of Jean Schramm, owner of the famous Enchanted Doll House of Manchester Center, Vermont, then passing into the collection of noted miniaturist Ann Meehan from 1988 until 2018, when it became a prized centerpiece in the collection of Dr. Robert Reyes of Laguna Woods, Ca. where it has resided, perfectly preserved until this day. According to Ann Meehan, noted dollhouse historian, who has seen about ten of these houses, each is different although of similar style of construction, and most were found to have originated in a small northern New England region near the Canadian border, although precise details are not known.