Monday, August 18, 2008

Modern Miniatures on Monday: Parade of Houses, Part Nine

At around the same time as Lundby was doing well in Sweden, a Danish company called Lisa was also building dolls houses and furniture in the same scale.

My Lisa house arrived June 2004 with (fortunately) a number of Lisa pieces (all in the wrong rooms):
plus some very clunky, out-of scale German pieces which were soon resold on eBay.There isn't very much known about Lisa houses and furniture. Apparently some people get them mixed up with Lundby houses but they're easy to tell apart (even if you don't have a whacking great "Lisa of Denmark" sticker on the front to guide you).The "step down" is on the left of the house whereas the Lundby "step down" is always on the right. The Lisa house has a terrace area on the left and the outside is papered with red and white brick, not Lundby's white and brown/ fawn.The only catalogues in existence are dated 1974/75, 1979 and 1981, and, according to The Lundby Letter Lisa was bought out by Lundby in late 1982. Before 1974 is all rather hazy at this stage...Many items of Lundby and Lisa furniture are similar. One of the easiest ways to tell the difference is check the "handles" on the furniture. Lisa tends to use circular indents as "handles" (see the centre section of this Lisa wall unit:and the drawers on this bedhead:)I'm very glad the house came with the bathroom pieces - one of my favorite parts of the house is the shower screen, complete with inbuilt water droplets...Longtime readers will remember the dining room from here. It's furnished with a Hanse (another Danish company) desk, stool and divan, and Brio Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs. Which are leftover from when I displayed my Brio furniture in my Lisa house before I got Brio houses. Oddly enough, based on this photo from a 1970s Käpphästen cataloguethere appears to be a strong link between Lisa and Brio. Which makes my use of Brio chairs in my Lisa house quite unremarkable.

4 comments :

Samuel said...

Very interesting, thanks! It really is hard to find info about Lisa of Denmark-houses, so this is valuable.

Susan Briscoe said...

Interesting post. I've just acquired a Lisa house and another by Hanse, so I'm trying to find out more about them.

AMCSviatko said...

Hi Susan

Have you found the article written by Valérie Braun in Dolls' Houses Past & Present? http://www.dollshousespastandpresent.com/issue15dec2012p8.htm

Susan Briscoe said...

Yes, I did. Lots of info there too. I think your lovely bed with the green headboard panel is actually Hanse, as I have one the same - the very similar Lisa bed has a red panel and a picture. The Hanse bed is even rarer to find than the Lisa, so I'm told!