“Jenny’s
Home…A Dream Come True!”
Miniature
worlds have fascinated children for generations, and most of us will have had a
farm, garage or doll house as youngsters….and some of us are still fascinated
by them now even though we’ve grown up. Many adults avidly seek out vintage items to
add to their existing collections, or to own something today they didn’t have
when they were small. I had a 1/16th
scale Tri-ang ‘Jenny’s Home’ doll’s house, one of their very last models, and I’ve
recently started collecting again too.
Tri-ang
was formed in the 1920s by the 3 sons of Joseph Lines, of Lines Brother’s Ltd,
which was at one time one of the largest toy makers in the world. Originally
manufacturing in metal, they began incorporating plastics into their toy designs
after buying out Rovex, an injection moulding company. The high level of detail
achievable in the plastic with the strength of the metal underneath was a
brilliant combination, and many of their designs, such as the Hornby train set,
have stood the test of time in both longevity and popularity. Tri-ang also made
doll’s houses for many years, probably being best known today for their ‘Tudor’
models which reflected the popular styles of early 20th century
suburban housing. The doll house furniture was also made in metal and plastic,
meaning they could achieve lifelike detail, as well as strength, so fortunately
many fine examples can still be found today by collectors.
Jenny’s
Home was made for only five years between 1965 and about 1970 when Tri-ang ceased
trading. Every box states it was ‘planned
in association with Homes and Gardens magazine’ and was ‘A room of your own! A house of your own!’
reflecting the popularity of apartments
and flats, and the desire for everything modern, open, light and new. It was a
modular system so you could extend your house by adding more rooms as you could
afford them…but as it was quite expensive at the time, my original house had
only 4 rooms. These came in 2 sizes, and had huge sliding windows in the
‘large’ rooms, ribbed ‘glass’ connecting doors, and tilting windows with
turquoise panels beneath in the smaller rooms. Outside were textured ‘stone’
effects and ‘wood’ panelling, and a balcony or garden space if you wanted them.
The ‘roof’ sections were flat transparent panels which could be lifted off for
easy access to the interiors where the furniture could be arranged. The rooms
could be linked at the doorways in lots of different ways, or stacked on top of
each other. I enjoyed this unusual aspect of the toy’s design, assembling mine
in as many ways as my limited collection allowed.
The
furniture was made by Spot-On, a subsidiary of Lines/Tri-ang in Belfast. Some of the
designs had been produced before for earlier Tri-ang houses, but they were updated
with distinctive new colours, of mainly white, turquoise blue, and red, and
repackaged specifically for Jenny’s Home. Some of the ‘Starter’ multi-room
packs came with some furniture, and it could also be bought in complete room
sets, like the bathroom set, bedroom, dining room, gardening, nursery set etc
and there were also some individual pieces and accessories available on their
own. These were obviously never bought in large quantities as they are very
desirable today and command a high price, especially if they can be found in
their original packaging. I didn’t have a lot of the original furniture in
1968, as it was quite expensive at the time. I have been seeking out a few
extras recently on auction sites, some of them can be picked up quite cheaply
if they have no box or need a little repair here and there. One thing I would
have loved to have had was the electrical system to provide lighting which
really brings the house to life. It was battery powered, with the pack to run
the system concealed inside a large ‘chimney’ clad in textured stone, which
stood at the side of the rooms.
Typical
of Tri-ang’s attention to detail, was the fact that a lot of the things in the
house were based on real-life items available at the time. The bathroom was by ‘Swanlyne’,
the TV was a ‘Bush’, the fridge ‘Prestcold’, and the Radiogram was by
‘Phillips’. The rooms had ‘wall-to-wall’ carpets, and Jenny had all the ‘modern
luxuries’ such as a swing seat and sun lounger for her garden….yet despite such
claims to modernity the writing on the box suggests what seem rather mundane
activities for Jenny!
Girls! Here’s Jenny’s Home! A beautiful home for you
to love and care for!
Build it up room by room just exactly the way you want
it!
Fill it with all kinds of wonderful Jenny’s Home
furniture, curtains and carpets!
And there’s Jenny! Ready to cook and clean, sit and
sew….
…there’s never been such fun for girls before! See
what you and your Jenny can do!
My
Jenny was an interior designer, a gardener, and had friends round to play!
I
loved my Jenny’s Home at the time, and I still think it is a wonderful little
toy.
If
you search for Jenny’s Home, for Tri-ang/Spot-On/Jenny’s Home online you can
find a few people who have built up quite extensive collections which give an
idea of how the original pieces looked in the room settings. There are a few
places also where you can still buy pieces, and sometimes they come up in
auctions. I have recently managed to get 2 more large rooms and a small room, a
set of lounge furniture, some kitchen items, and some of the lighting, but I
still have a long way to go to come close to some of the wonderful collections
online.
Wiebe
Buising in the Netherlands has a wonderful website of all the toys produced by
Spot-On and their doll’s house pieces like Jenny’s Home, and is in the process
of putting photographs of everything he can find on line. He was kind enough to
allow me to use some of his photographs and information in this article. His
site is well worth a visit for any enthusiast!
Have a look at his ‘doll house furniture ( scale 1/16th)’,
and ‘room-sets’ for Jenny’s Home:
http://spot-on-collector.com
I
am also putting my pictures of finds, research, and virtual ‘wish-list’ on Pinterest
here:
…and
I have started a Facebook page for her here:
Eileen
Sedgwick
