Antique Dollhouses AKA Teddy Bear Houses

Gottschalk, Bliss, two of my favorite early dollhouse manufacturers. Of course, to me, the dollhouses are teddy bear houses. The antique business for me is ever changing, and the little houses and miniatures are my new favorite things, well...next to teddy bears. When I saw this Gottschalk dollhouse, circa late19 th century, I fell in love with it and knew it was coming home with me. Seems like my collecting/buying/selling habits are getting smaller and smaller. I started out in the antique world selling large primitive furniture. My hubby quickly tired of my antique business and the 20' trailer was traded for a van. My large furniture changed to child and doll size furniture for the bears. Now I'm enjoying the miniatures. Funny how you just fall into things. The antique teddy bears will always be my passion, but I wonder what else will come next. I'm sure it'll be something that compliments the bears, antique of course. The larger dollhouse pictured here is a Moritz Gottschalk house, the smaller one's maker is unknown, but is in the detailed tradition of the early Bliss and Gottschalk dollhouses.

Antique Bing Teddy Bears

Any bear is a good bear...that's my motto. But oh my...the early Bings in my opinion, are just way special. The Gebruder Bing Company of Nuremburg, Germany, was founded in 1865 and quickly became one of the premium toy manufacturers of the world. Lucky for us bear people, they began making bears in 1906 and continued until their factories closed in 1932. These early bears have characteristics only seen on Bing bears. I stand in awe when I look at these artistically made bears, with their endearing expressions, beautifully detailed bodies and wonderfully detailed noses. There are many characteristics unique to Bing, such as their sentry style bears that appear to stand on tip toes. Their beautifully detailed noses are a work of art in themselves. As with early Steiffs, they have long arms, big feet and big humps. Pictured here are two early Bing teddy bears along with a 'Bing Pigmyphone', a little clockwork phonograph within a wonderful lithographed tin, made by Bing at the turn of the century. Love these antique teddy bears and toys.