Restoration On The Antique German Christian Hacker Dolls House Begins - Part One

 I started restoration of this dolls house back at the beginning of August, and over the past few weeks I have been logging its journey on my Instagram account (vintagektminiatures). However, for those of you not on Instagram, I will repeat those posts on here. 

My lovely antique German Christian Hacker dolls house is now out of storage & restoration has begun. Woodworm was rife though, and it has taken several treatments to sort over a considerable period of time. The many worm holes have now been filled with wood filler, so if any new holes appear I know that I will have to treat the house once again with woodworm killer. 

The house is split into three floors & comprises of five separate removable sections. The very top of the roof also lifts off. All original papers are still there but some areas are in poor condition. 

I have managed to erase some of the crinkles out of the papers, & found wallpaper syringes useful for that task. Hopefully furniture will help to hide some of the more damaged areas. 

Above you can see the ground floor that has the kitchen, a central hall with stairs, plus dining room. Each room has a connecting opening door. 

I particularly love the kitchen’s built-in dresser & range, and I think this is my favourite room at the moment. 

This is the middle floor that contains two rooms with a connecting door. Each of these rooms have a back window. The left room will be my drawing room, and the right room will be an adult's bedroom. 

The top floor has a further two rooms, plus a connecting door.  The larger room will be another bedroom, and the smaller room will be the nursery. As you can see in above photo, there is a lift- off frontage.  

Under the base you can see the model number 138/6 M written in pencil & “Made In Germany” in ink, alongside a faint Christian Hacker trademark. 

There is a missing exterior door & balcony from the frontage of the second floor. Previous owner has simply replaced that missing door with a pane of glass but am currently pondering on how to reinstall a door & balcony. 

Am also hoping to restore the doorbell too & get it working again if I can figure out how to! Methinks this dolls house will be one of those long term projects & I love it.

Restoration Part Two to follow shortly...

What A Mad World We Live In At Times!

 

Yesterday, there was a bit of drama at the Haddenham Antique Fair…yes  REALLY, you couldn’t make this up! The fair had opened and all was well, but slowly the rumour from the main hall trickled through to us in the smaller foyer area that something was afoot! We had also realised no visitors had appeared through the main door for quite a few minutes. 

It seemed that unwittingly, a stand holder in the main hall (who normally deals with jewellery & silver items) had purchased a WW2 shell from a recent house clearance. He thought it would be an “easy sell” at the Haddenham Fair. Someone (who knows about these things) spotted the shell and immediately realised it was live! Hence, the shell was promptly taken to the stand holders car out in the car park, and the police arrived. We were expecting to be evacuated, but no order came, so we just carried on! It was all a bit surreal to be honest. Although it had been advised to close all windows and doors on that side of the building nearest the “bomb”…as a precaution? Jokes were flying backwards and forwards amongst us all, and we were wondering if this was an actual wind up. But nope- this was really happening. 

The car park was subsequently cordoned off, and eventually the bomb squad arrived (some people reckoned from London- hence the delay). They safely removed the shell from the car, and took it away to a nearby field. An explosion could be heard a short time later. 

Although I am chuckling as I write this, there is that “what if” aspect to this story. What a mad world we live in! 

I Will Be At The Haddenham Antique & Collectors Fair This Sunday (24th May) 2026

Here is a glimpse of just some of the old treasures I will have for sale at the monthly Haddenham Antique & Collectors Fair this Sunday (24th May). 

This gorgeous 12" early 1900s china head doll is beautifully dressed and in fantastic condition, along with some tiny German baby dolls in original condition. 

I have never seen a pen knife this tiny before, it is exquisite! The antique Stanhope has an interesting little image of an old gentleman.  I have a number of the tiny Frozen Charlotte dolls. 

This is only a little peek of various other little bits and bobs I will have for sale. 

I will also have various "rummaging boxes" of assorted dolls house items, which are always popular. 

Hope to see you there!

Celia

Haddenham Village Hall, Banks Park, Banks Road, Haddenham, Bucks. HP17 8EE.
Entry time - 9.00am to 3.00pm.
Entry Fee - £2.00

It Has Been A While - Back To Creating A Miniature Antique Style Lampshade For Little Antique Shop

It has been quite a while since I have been on this blog. I am still around, and am still attending the Haddenham Antique Fair on the fourth Sunday of every month with some miniature treasures, as well as real life size treasures for you to buy. But life has well and truly taken me in an unexpected direction since my retirement from KT Miniatures. I had started my initial Reiki Healing training a few years ago, and had promised myself to complete the next "practitioner level" of training when I retired...which I did. I only meant to do this for my own personal development but very quickly events took over, and became a Reiki practitioner a year later!! It has been life changing and truly wonderful to find myself with a skill that helps people. And after several months I made a final decision to end my miniature workshops too, it truly was the end of KT Miniatures. But am enjoying the world of miniatures very much as a hobby now. 

And here we are...

I love my little antique shop but have been waiting a long time for the right kind of lampshade to come along. One never did (well not an affordable one anyway), so I decided to make one. And it felt good to be creating again! The aim was to make the lampshade look old, quirky and bold enough to make a statement. All materials used were picked up incredibly cheap from car boot sales. I used an old broken metal brooch, beautiful glass beads from a broken early 1900s lampshade, and other glass beads from some sort of antique tassel. 

After breaking the remnants of the clasp off the back of the brooch, I sorted out eight original glass bead strands from the lamp, then removing excess beads but keeping original cotton thread, I tied them around the brooch evenly. 

From the tassel I cut off eight strands of glass beads, removed excess beads then threaded them evenly spaced around the brooch. 

It took a bit of patience but was well worth it. With the addition of a hanging wire made from a few more beads plus some fuse wire, and a touch up with acrylic paints to disguise the knotted thread ends, I was very pleased with the result. 

And here it is in situ, fitted to a hanging bar made from an old coat hangar. 

My little antique shop is the prototype from one of our old workshops which we did over a decade ago now...can't believe how quick the time goes! The contents changes from time to time, as I eventually find room for them in one of my dolls houses or room settings. However I have greatly downsized my collection of dolls houses and only have a couple or so now. Am still selling one or two pieces of the contents on my stand at the Haddenham Antique Fair. 

It is filled with a mixed bunch of antique, vintage, preloved and my handmade items (from KT Miniatures' days). 

The door at the back does not open, and is for effect only. The little drawers all open, so too the glass cupboard. The chequered floor was hand painted (a technique taught in several of our workshops). 

I love this old typewriter and antique crockery. The carver chair with tapestry upholstery  (right of photo) was made by master craftsman Stuart King a few decades ago, and whom I have recently had the pleasure to meet in person as a customer at the Haddenham Fair. What a lovely and amazing character he is!

There are so many of the antique glass beads left over that I think I may be making another lampshade in the near future for my old little haberdashery. 

I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek. 

Celia

PS. I will be at the Haddenham Antique Fair next Sunday (May 24th). Hope to see you there!