Dolls' two room setting or Puppenstube made in Stuttgart, Germany about 1890

The two rooms, a sitting room and a bedroom, are mounted on a table top on legs, one of which is a replacement. The exterior wood is varnished, the floors are covered with paper painted to represent parquet. Each room has a dado. There is gilt beading at dado and ceiling and at the front edges of each room. The sitting room is furnished in the heavy High German style of the late 19th century in Germany. The room's upper walls are papered in green with a casement window in the rear wall to the right. To the left a curtained alcove is attached to the back, decorated in similar style to the sitting room, and with a large stained glass window which slots in from above.The glass is covered with translucent paper with a stylized floral pattern in yellow, red, green and black.Wooden pelmet brackets are attached above the window and alcove entrance.The dividing wall has a pelmeted double door into the bedroom.
The bedroom is furnished in a subdued version of "Jugendstil" or Art Nouveau. The upper walls of the bedroom are covered with a russet coloured wallpaper.A curatained double door leads onto the balcony. Two paintings, a mirror, a barometer and two pelmet brackets are attached to the walls.A metal balcony leads from the bedroom. The floor is painted to simulate paving stones, with the openwork balustrade and decorative edging of the roof painted in red and gold.The roof is supported by three columns (right back one is missing).Pink linen flowers twine up the front columns and along the top edge. The furniture is contemporary with the period of the rooms and has been preserved in mint condition.

Said to have been commissioned by and made for H.Blumhardt's famous toyshop in the Konigsbau, Stuttgart, for display at the Landesgewerbemuseum, Stuttgart in the 1890s. It was bought by the Mayer family and was subsequently passed down the generations until it reached Dr.Christa Bausch from whom the museum acquired the rooms in 1985.

Germany has the largest number of 17th century baby houses surviving as well as records and inventories for earlier houses. By the end of the 18th century these miniature buildings were superseded by the preference for miniature rooms in Germany. Rooms were practical, portable, compact and accessible. They were easier to export than the larger houses and they made perfect presents for little girls. By the end of the 18th century they were becoming generally available through sample or trade catalogues as well as in toyshops. In the 19th century they were made in a variety of sizes by a number of manufacturers and craftsmen. Miniature rooms continue to be popular in Germany today although they never caught on in the rest of Europe. These very fine rooms were played with by generations of girls in the Mayer family until 1985 when they were sold to the museum.

MISC.19&:1 to 166/4-1985