The Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse

  I've had a doll post in the works, but things aren't cooperating. I can't find all the clothing to go with the doll, that I KNOW I have. I'm still looking for the last few things, so bear with me. On the bright side, doing research for the post I discovered that some other pieces I have that I hadn't yet identified, belong to said doll! So there will be some pieces included that I didn't even realize I'd have for the post.
  In the meantime, it has been ages since a kind reader named Christel gave me some information--- and even photos!---- of a toy I have been curious about for ages. I was having trouble moving the pictures from her email to my picture folder,and just didn't have time to figure out the problem with Christmas and all. Then I nearly forgot about it, because my brain is like that these days! But tonight I remembered again when I was actually at the computer, so now, with the photo problem straightened out, here we are.
  Some time ago I posted about the Ivy Cottage dolls,(You can read those posts HERE and HERE.) and books by E.J. Taylor.

The main characters of the Ivy Cottage books, rag dolls Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons.

The first book in the series, which eventually included 5 books.

When my daughter Emma was small we read the Ivy Cottage books often, and we both had a set of the Ruby and Violet dolls. Emma also had a few of the Ivy Cottage PVC figures that Ken and I bought in Canada.

The back of the doll boxes shows the PVC figures at the bottom.

 She had Ruby Buttons and Miss Biscuit, and their goose Hanna Honk. But we were never able to find Violet. Here I have to stop and tell you that after all these years Emma's collection is complete! Christel and I were emailing about Ivy Cottage and I mentioned our Violet-less existence.Christel very kindly offered to send Emma a spare Violet she had! Even at 24 Emma was excited to receive her.
  The one thing I had never been able to find, or even find any information about, or even a picture of,was what was called on the back of the doll boxes and PVC packages 'the Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse'. (Believe me, there is NOTHING on the entire internet about this house.) I never knew if it was a child's playhouse, or a house for the dolls.Either sounded pretty cool to me. The artwork in the books was beautiful.

If you read the other posts you'll have seen this before, but it's probably my favourite picture from any of the books.

I have searched for all these years for something about this house. And recently Christel dropped out of the sky with pictures of it!

  Christel bought her house second hand, and it didn't come with any furniture, so we still don't know if it originally came with any accessories.
   Here's what Christel has to say about the Ivy Cottage house:

Officially, it was known as the “Horsman Ivy Cottage Playhouse” from the “Horsman Design Studio”, and it was unfortunately made entirely of folding cardboard.  From the outside, it was covered with a leafy print, with a few “windows” spilling “light”, so it did not live up to my hopes.  

Because the construction was so flimsy, the floors would simply buckle up.  If you added furniture, it simply slipped into the corners, making it impossible to play with it. The cardboard insured that it would not survive. 
 

   So it's pretty disappointing to find this out after all these years of wondering! I still thought it was worth posting about the house though, simply because there is NO information about this house out there, let alone photos. So thanks to Christel for solving the mystery. Maybe now this house will no longer drive people crazy!

Doll-A-Day 321: Ivy Cottage Cecily Thistle and Rag Bag Annie

  Today's doll is two again, and part 2 of yesterday's post on Ivy Cottage dolls. ("Ivy Cottage"  being the series of children's books written by doll artist E. J. Taylor, and featuring a pair of live rag dolls named Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons, and their creator and 'mom' Miss Biscuit.) Today's dolls are Cecily Thistle and Rag Bag Annie, also made by Horsman.

These dolls are much smaller than yesterday's 12" rag dolls. These dolls are about 6" tall.

They don't exactly qualify as 'rag dolls', since they have cloth bodies, with vinyl heads, and  vinyl arms and legs.

The Rag Bag Annie character is from "Christmas at Ivy Cottage", and doesn't appear in any of the other Ivy Cottage books.

She looks a lot more innocent and sweet in the book illustrations. That scarf is supposed t be a shawl.

Are there 6" rag dolls of Ruby and Violet too? I want to see them! By the way, if that paragraph on the box doesn't make sense, it's because two of the sentences are transposed.

UPDATE: Yes, there are 6" dolls of Ruby and Violet! I found these pictures on an old auction, and I am borrowing them because there are no others available. I will gladly remove them if asked.

I have no idea where Cecily Thistle comes from, as she doesn't appear in any of the books, and I think we have them all now.

We had all the books,(Ivy Cottage, Goose Eggs, Rag Doll Press, and The Thorn Witch.), except "Christmas at Ivy Cottage", so I had never heard of Rag Bag Annie until I happened to see the auction for these two online. Ken bought them for me for Christmas last year.

Rag Bag Annie was supposed to be poor. I'm guessing Cecily Thistle is a rich girl.

In that case you'd think she could afford an orthodontist.

Christmas at Ivy Cottage only seemed to be available in Britain, since I hadn't found it here, or in any American online auction. It was a bit more expensive and rarely showed up for sale, so I only managed to get it last year. We're all a little too old for it around here, but I wanted to complete the set: because I'm obsessive, and in case I ever have grandchildren who want to read them all.

There may end up being some fighting, since most of the books belong to Emma, except for The Thorn Witch, which is Ivy's, and Christmas at Ivy Cottage, which belongs to...me?
  The books aren't the easiest in the world to find, and "Christmas at Ivy Cottage", at least, can be a bit expensive for a paper back book. The writing isn't the best in the world.(E.J. Taylor wasn't a writer, after all.) But the books are a world of their own. The idea is charming. The stories are sweet, and simple, and full of good hearted acts. The illustrations are beautiful, and the characters are loveable.Even grouchy, persnickety Violet shows her warm side quite often. "Christmas at Ivy Cottage" is the last book written, and the story seems rushed. But to children, the simple story of a friend in need and her friends' acts of kindness will seem just right. With all the unsettling things children are subjected to these days, these quiet little stories of love and friendship are just what we need.
**UPDATE** The Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse found! See it HERE!

Doll-A-Day 320:Ivy Cottage Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons

    Followers are coming in twos lately. Today we welcome Mommy And Me Dolls and astrid_nat. Check out Mommy And Me Dolls' blog. I don't think astrid has one, but correct me if I'm wrong astrid.Thanks for joining us guys.
******Because so many people ask where they can obtain these dolls, I  will always bring home any  extra Violet or Ruby dolls I find and post them here. I don't have any right now, but check back occasionally.*************************************************************************
  Today's doll is two dolls again: These two rag dolls named Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons.

Ruby and Violet are dolls based on characters from the "Ivy Cottage" series of books by E. J. Taylor.

The dolls have totally soft floppy bodies, and are made of cozy soft fabric, with vinyl heads.

Their clothes are removable. Ruby comes with her pet mouse and Violet comes with her teddy bear.

The dolls were made by Horsman.There was also a line of PVC figures, (Seen here at the bottom of the box.), and something we never found called The Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse.I still wonder what that was.We found Emma a couple of the PVCs in Canada.

UPDATE: Pop Up Playhouse mystery solved! Thanks to a kind reader you can see the playhouse HERE.
The dolls, based on the books, (or is it the other way around?), bring things sort of full circle since the author, E. J. Taylor, is a doll maker.

Some of E.J. Tayor's amazing dolls. They look like the illustrations of the characters in the Ivy Cottage books.

E.J. Taylor, dollmaker.The books were written as a side project.

We first discovered the Ivy Cottage dolls back when Emma was a baby, or maybe even before she was born.I found the dolls in 2 sizes at Odd/Big Lots. I loved them and although I didn't very often buy dolls for myself then, I had to have them. I really liked the big ones, but I thought the legs looked too elephantine.I ended up with these 12" tall ones.

Later on we found the first book,"Ivy Cottage" at an outlet store.

 

Having been an Anglophile, and having been married to an Englishman for years, I can usually detect Britishness from miles away. There was something vaguely British about the books, but they were just not quite British. This made sense when I found that E.J. Taylor is an American, but has lived in England for years.

I recognized the connection with the dolls right away, and we bought the book. I love the soft,sweet illustrations.

The premise of the books was that Miss Biscuit, a newly retired nanny,moved to the country with Violet Pickles,her rag doll companion,who is alive. Violet is bored and lonely living out in the country,so Miss Biscuit makes another live rag doll,Ruby Buttons, to keep her company.

  Emma liked the book when she was little, and we read it often. Later Ivy enjoyed the books too. (We had found others by the time she came along.) Emma wanted to play with my dolls, but I didn't want them to get disheveled, being played with.I let her play with them for a while, but eventually she got her own.
  I always thought it would have been nice if the dolls had had more clothes made for them, like their cozy night gowns and winter coats.

I didn't sew then, so I never attempted them.

  The books never explain why the dolls are alive, or how Miss Biscuit can make Live dolls. Subsequent books never mentioned the fact that Ruby and Violet are dolls.

 

 

 

 They go to school,where none of the other kids are dolls. Ruby wants to work with animals, and Violet wants to be a writer.

The dolls are very cute, and the books are sweet and old fashioned. E.J. Taylor created a world you want to curl up in and be cozy.
Tomorrow we'll see a couple of different dolls from the Ivy Cottage books.
** UPDATE** The Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse mystery solved! See it HERE!