Modern Miniatures on Monday: Parade of Houses, Part Three (1973-1974 Lundby)

Vintage Lundby House 1973-1974. (I dated this house as straddling two years as it still has the attachments on the base for the legs (see my 1967 vintage Lundby house), which were discontinued in 1973. But it also has the 'new' plastic stair rails and stairs which first appeared in the 1974 catalogue.

This is my least favorite house. There. I've said it. And it feels good to acknowledge it out loud.

At first I thought it might have been the dark, dirty looking green wallpaper that covers the back wall. Or the fact that, of all my houses, this is the one that survived the trip here least well and so it has splits where it shouldn't have and bits glued back on that show it. Badly. Plus marks from a previous owner to top it all off.

But, as I spent time with it over the past week cleaning and mending it best I could, I realised what the problem really is. This is the surly, gangly teenager of my dolls' house collection.

You can still see traces of the house it used to be in the late 60s:

* The front edging is still white wood, same as my 1967 house.
* The chimney remains the same as previous models (see below)

* The internal doors are wood, with handles on one side only:

* The windows remain crude. Oddly enough, separate plastic window inserts were available in the 1970 catalogue but disappeared the following year.

You can also see the beginnings of what The Lundby Style was to become:

* The external bricks are now white:

* And there is now a hole in the back of the house, under the stairs, to store the transformer.
* The stairs, banister and railings at the top are now plastic and will remain this style up until the present day:* The bathroom windows have disappeared and there is now a wall and door between the dining room and bathroom. This will also remain part of the Lundby house design up until the present day.

* Interestingly enough, this appears to be the first model where they use custom designed miniature wallpaper rather than full sized offcuts.

My favourite pieces of furniture in this house are:

The groovy bed set with swirly fabric cover and stool (Lundby 9721 New Scandinavia: listed as new in the 1974 catalogue but with a different style stool. I have both stools but prefer this one with legs)The matching swivel chair and footstool in the study area (Lundby 5450 Snurrefatolj and Lundby 5451 Snurrepall) I also think the Pippi Longstocking TV is pretty cool and brings back childhood memories. Pity I don't have one complete with a base... (For the sharp eyed amongst you you'll notice the kitchen chairs remain the same as the ones in the 1957 and 1967 house, except this time they're yellow. And two interesting bits of trivia: the kitchen table is a real Formica pattern called Virrvarr, designed in 1958 by Sigvard Bernadotte. And the painting above the swivel chair is The Reader painted by Jean-Honore Fragonard between 1770 and 1772 The original hangs in The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC)

(This house was purchased, unfurnished, off German eBay in June 2004).

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