Dollhouse

This 1929 dollhouse represents one of the simpler two-story houses produced by the A. Schoenhut Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1920s. Inexpensive, mass-produced dollhouses first appeared in the United States at the end of the 19th century, largely replacing the handmade dollhouses that were too costly for most Americans. But in 1895 the R. Bliss Company of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, adopted European manufacturing techniques to churn out small, simple wood houses decorated with lithographed paper. In 1917 the Schoenhut Company followed suit with its own line of "very artistic, high-class doll houses and bungalows." Schoenhut successfully combined inexpensive production techniques with contemporary architectural trends to produce a line of best-selling dollhouses into the early 1930s. The houses were constructed of wood, with embossed fiberboard "stone walls" and tin roofs, and featured interiors decorated with lithographed wallpaper. With only four rooms, no porches, and none of the distinctive trompe l'oeil effects of their other styles, this house represents one of the company's simpler models. The Schoenhut Company manufactured toy dollhouses from 1917 to 1934, when the effects of the Great Depression forced it to discontinue production.