Fondation Tanagra - Art Mode Culture - The Lala House

THE LOWER PART

The inside of the doors with the very lovely daguerreotype-like chromolithographe pictures in the Romantic-style of the 1870s and 1880s in Europe.

The ground floor comes naturally as a surprise when one opens the lower doors with the crossed bars which is a very French Directoire effect. The overall style is utterly enchanting. The surprise is greatly due to the fact that nothing on the outside front of the house indicates the presence of rooms, the only windows of this level being placed in the back (they are also the only ones to open). Since it is low, adults are obliged to sit on the floor to see all the details, especially the ceilings and the wall corniches lavishly decorated with plates. I find this level particularly magical, each room having its own peculiar mood. They reveal the heart of a house: the kitchen, and in this case, the dining room and the pantry.

But first, let’s stop on the two doors which are particularly noteworthy: The inside is decorated with original daguerrotype-style chromolithographe scenes, most probably from Switzerland or Austria or even Bavaria. We were not capable to identify the naturalistic sites yet. Unfortunately, the doors have suffered from heat and water damage and the glass is slightly broken. However, regardless of this accident, the effect is altogether lovely, refined and dreamy

The Kitchen

The kitchen is the soul of a house.

The kitchen is filled with a thousand details that are exquisite. This room is now than just very full, it is actually overcrowded as kitchens should be in doll’s houses, at least according to BillyBoy*’s taste, to which I can only agree. Let’s be honest, too much is barely enough! The room is cream coloured with substantial wainscoting and a "real" fake door (meaning it does not open).

The floor is made with ceramic tiles in blue and white with checkerboard motif and the walls are also blue, a colour traditionally used in the old days before window screens and insecticides, to keep flies away. Have you ever seen flies buzzing around a blue cow? Of course not, which is a rather good proof that it works!

The sink is a tin toy with a real reservoir by Marklin or Bing and the the cooker is in lithographed tin in a smaller scale. The walls are covered with all kinds of utensils, pottery and tools, all very charming and authentic, ranging from different decades. The table is covered with cakes and food, and the other cat of the house, a white plaster one, is waiting, like a sphinx, in a seemingly sleepy haze. Something tells me that there’s a mouse in the house!

To be noticed also, the bell hanging above the wall, to call the maid (who is nowhere to be seen). Near the open window, which is enhanced with lovely blue and white provencial Vichy (french gingham) curtains embroidered in red cross stitch smocking, is a nice chest of drawers which is made in waxed cardboard and boxes of matches with all its drawers opening and probably dates from the early 1900s. Think of all the little secrets a child could have placed in those!

The Dining Room

The dining room

Next room is the dining room, which is quite stunning. The “real fake” door on this side is oak brown, topped with a decorative carved wood device. The room has a definite Bavarian mood, though the fabric in the dark brown lacquered paneling is authentic early 18th-century French fabric. It has altogether a warm and inviting atmosphere, perfect to enjoy a delicious Sunday lunch. Here we feel the true effect of Mrs Vivienne Greene's word for the mood - "gloomth".

The floor as well as the ceiling are in early painted linoleum. This room has a double door opening, (this type of disguised door in panelling is called a jib door). They lead to the pantry, which usually is placed between the kitchen and dining room, which is not the case here. The window, which opens, has a simple curtain treatment, embroidred lace and "broderie anglaise", which is the French word for English eyelet.

The dining room furniture is composed of a classical German extension table, surrounded with an amazing set of chairs and armchairs, upholstered in petit point embroidery and edged in two-tone trimming, all matching to the carpet.

The table is set for a lunch for two with a big lobster waiting on a cardboard embossed plate, complete with vegetables and shrimps, "consommé" (soup), extra fish on a plate... a very nice meal if any. A buffet displays a fine set of dining wear and Germanic mugs as well as a very delicate white metal liquor set on a tray. It also has s set of three candelabras, all with birthday cake candles, which are not antiques. On the other side of the window, decorated with lace curtains is a wooden “Grandfather’s” clock, called comtoise in French.

The walls and the ceiling are decorated with an lovely collection of dishes, some in sterling silver, some in wood, which is turned and painted, from the early 19th-century. Also to be noticed in the foreground a ceramic heater, very typical of this style of houses.

The Pantry

This very crowded room is filled with poetical bric-à-brac and has a particularly beautiful atmosphere when lit through the back window with natural daylight. It is the kind of place which evokes childhood, a place where a child would hide and play, smelling the nice odours coming from the kitchen and from the dining room.

The room is in a dominant ox blood red tone with similar dark brown lacquered wainscoting with two plate rails to carry all the various plates and chargers. Thusly it displays a fine collection of French doll’s faience plates with floral motif and the room is filled with all kinds of mugs and crockery, as well as saucers, candlesticks, saucepans and other asundry wares.

On the table are some "cocottes", one in terracotta, two in pressed glass. These are used to bake meat pies. I especially love those, I love everything representing poultry in a doll's house (as well as animals and horses) and I also like kitchen-crockery poultry moulds in real kitchens which are always so decorative, probably a slight nostalgia of my childhood in my grandparent's farm. This is why I have placed a stuffed hen on top of this house, which some may find odd or weird, but poultry is actually the animal species I like to see stuffed, though I don't like stuffed birds and especially don't like stuffed furry animals. Much too morbid for BillyBoy* and I.

Also to be noticed in this room, the armoire filled with linen, the iron sink to make salaisons (to soak pork meat in salt) - which you cannot see on the photograph. I'll have to make more shots for all these details. There is also an interesting array of various tools and objects, such as a straw basket, a sterling silver Swiss grape harvesting basket and a tiny German bird cage in white metal with early celluloid roof, offered to us by a friend. It is nice to have a room where you can always add some object that you cannot really put in any other room. This is also our taste, since we especially don't like to see a doll's house room too organized or see it barren: you see, the thing is that we actually PLAY with these incredible toys, such incredible gifts from the past, and our motto is always the same: too much is barely enough in our doll's houses...and I think you must have gotten the picture by now!

THE LALA HOUSE nows exists as a book:

124 pages with many other photographs now shown in this article! You can order it right now from BLURB

The visit of the Lala House has now come to an end and I hope you enjoyed the visit as much as I enjoyed being your guide. It has been a pleasure for me to share this house with you and to express my passion for this cultural subject. There are many wonderful historic and ancient doll houses in the world, in museums as well as in private collections, as shown in some of the books I have selected below. This one, as you may have understood, is especially dear to me.

Before closing the doors, if you look very carefully, you will notice, after the white mouse, another tiny grey one hiding somewhere in the kitchen. She hasn’t much to fear, because, except for the risk of being broken, there is not so much to worry about in the magical secluded world of a doll’s house: Steiff cats and plaster-moulded cats do not eat mice, they just stretch endlessly or lazily dream their life away; ducks in ceramic baskets never end as gourmet food and plaster lobsters do not scream when they’re put in a mould. They just look awfully decorative, which is a good reason enough to let them live in peace, as long as possible.

Lala Jean Pierre Lestrade

PS: Instead of naming this once anonymous doll's house "The Yellow House" or any other name, BillyBoy* named it "The Lala House", as a loving attention to his "long-time companion and soul-mate" and now husband as of February 6th, 2012 (30 years together), a very touching and loving attention. Now I know which doll's house to pick as a shelter if, like in the cult movie, I ever turn into an "incredible shrinking man".

A few selected books on doll's houses: