Chad Valley Dolls House 1968/69.
I like some metal dollhouses. I have a few on my bucket list yet to get and this Chad Valley was one that I did want. It just appealed to me, it was made by Chad Valley that I'm very familiar with and it's a compact little dollhouse and only the second metal one that I had purchased.
The thing with these metal dollhouses is, they can be rust buckets. It's expected to see some rust in them due to what they're made from and because of their age but it can be a long time looking for one I want that isn't too far gone with the rust.
Sometimes, trying to deal with rust in a dollhouse can end up causing more damage so I don't risk it, I hold out until I find the dollhouse I'm looking for with an amount of rust that I can live with and hide under a rug or piece of furniture.
A collapsible Chad Valley dollhouse that slots together with metal tabs.
The first metal dollhouse I bought was a T. Cohn Spanish style house from the US. It has some rust, a missing front door (I still don't have a replacement) and a couple of other issues that were fixable. I bought it because I wanted it, it was as cheap as chips and before eBay introduced that wretched shipping program where as a buyer, you have to practically take out a mortgage on your home to pay the shipping cost.
I'm going to make curtains for this dollhouse.
There's no maker stamped on the dollhouse itself and it often pops up for sale in all the usual online places. These dollhouses have been advertised in 1968 and 1969 as being made by Chad Valley in England.
Two levels, four rooms.
Chad Valley marketed this house in a few different ways with one just being 'Chad Valley Dolls House' and also as a ' Chad Valley Collapsible Dolls House, easy to store with no sharp edges.'
Kleeware bathroom set.
I've swapped out the furniture multiple times in this dollhouse but I'm never satisfied.
The furniture I added to this house is a mixed bag of some vintage Sylvanian Families, Kleeware, Endeavor Industrial furniture made in Hong Kong and an interesting little television set that is actually a souvenir mini view master that works, all from my dollhouse stash, some items are bigger than others but they'll do until I swap out all of the pieces yet again for something different.
More Kleeware plastic furniture.
It doesn't appear Chad Valley manufactured any dollhouse furniture for their own dollhouses back when these were made and it may not have been worth it for them considering they only produced two metal dollhouses at that time (that I'm aware of), this one with the red or yellow roof and their Tudor style dollhouse they called 'Rose Cottage'.
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Vintage Sylvanian Families furniture.
The Chad Valley Rose Cottage Tudor style dollhouse is also metal with two levels and four rooms. It's the same set up as this 1968/69 dollhouse with different artwork on the outside. The wording on the box states 'Chad Valley Dolls House'. It doesn't refer to the style of the house.
Looking straight at the front of Rose Cottage, the front door is to the very left with the name Rose Cottage written above the door. It comes in the same type of box as my Chad Valley house and unfortunately, Rose Cottage has managed to evade me so far. I often check all the well known sale sites in the hope that one might come up for sale and that a kindly seller would be willing to ship it to me. I'm probably delusional.
