Battered beauty

Hello Friends, I hope you're  doing well!

The "Centennial" is one of my favorite -if not the favorite-  dolls houses in my collection. It was generously given to me for free by a very nice elderly couple living in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

 

 

The house was built in the early 1920s by a Dutch gentleman named Mister Willemse for his three young daughters Mies, Corry, and Magda.    

Being obviously a wise man, as well as an excellent carpenter, he ensured that the three girls would be able to play together, by building it in such a way that it could be accessed on three sides simultaneously. The above image shows the house in the "closed" mode, i.e. with the removable wall panels attached.

 

Naturally, the house has seen quite some wear and tear throughout her 100 years history, as well as some alterations, some of which were not for the better, I must say. Even so, I totally love the way she looks today because, to me, all her 'scars' are a testament to her longevity. 

 

 

This blog posting is focused on the outside of the house, and is meant to show you its 'battle scars' in detail. People often tend to see tear and wear on old dolls houses as something to be 'fixed', while in reality they just show the passage of time, and definitely add character and charm to an old lady such as this. They call it 'damages', I call it LIFE.

 

Needless to say that I keep this beauty 'as is', and the only things that I might consider 'fixing' are really minor, 'post Mr. Willemse' alterations, such as the white paint on the glass window above the entrance door.

 

 

 

The above image clearly shows the original brown paper underneath a more 'contemporary' one. I'm not even thinking of removing the latter, choosing instead to leave it like this, so you can get a glimpse of the past underneath its current top layer.

 

 

 

 

Same for the deliciously weathered roof; the tiled paper is missing in many places around the edge of the roof, but i just LOVE the way it looks today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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