THE LETTEROF SWEDEN

A Quarterly Newsletter Published for Members of the We Love Lundby Club

MARCH 2007Volume 4Number 1

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HISTORY OF LUNDBY OF SWEDENPart III

Third Ten Years—1967-1977

AFTER THE MERGE WITH LERRO in the 1960s, Lundby started massproducing and exporting their dollhouses and furniture. By the

early 1970s, the fame of Lundby of Sweden spread throughoutEurope and even worldwide.

An article from December 18, 1970,“It’s a Doll’s Life,” in the UKmagazine, “Building Design,” pictures an all-electric contemporaryLundby dollhouse. The author, Kerry Stephenson, writes, “…animport to Britain this year from Scandinavia is proving (to be) oneof the biggest sellers. It is the Lundby doll’s house, complete with

built-in electrical connections and light sockets.”Not only did Lundby continue to manufacture its “popular” dollhouse, the Gothenburg, the

company introduced a room extension in 1972 and a garage extension in 1975. Always theinnovator, Lundby constantly updated its dollhouse wallpapers, furniture fabrics, and colors.

In 1976 the company wowed the miniatures world when it introduced a sparkling new“super deluxe” dollhouse, the Stockholm, as well as the play garden and balcony for theGothenburg.

Free of the financial ups and downs the company would experience in the two decades tocome, Lundby employed nearly 500 people working in factories in Sweden, Germany,Denmark and England. Sources put the dollhouse production numbers between 100,000 and300,000 a year. By 1977 Lundby was exporting dollhouses and furniture to 20 countries.

There is no doubt that the 1970s were “Golden Years” for Lundby of Sweden. ♥

Lundby Expands Worldwide in the 1970s

Block House Inc., located in New York City, was theexclusive US importer of Lundby during most of the1970s. Children and parents alike could not resistthe excellent craftsmanship and real lighting from thesafe 4-volt transformer. Photo from a 1974 BlockHouse advertisement.

Editor’s Note:This is the third of six articlesto commemorate the 60th Anniversary ofLundby of Sweden dollhouses and furniture,1947-2007.

Lundby Turns 60!Voters Select “A Big Party”We are all winners because you collectively decided the top sloganin the 60th Anniversary Slogan Contest! A retired Lundby AdventCalendar, along with a free year’s membership in the WLLC, go toReina Olthof, Kornhorn, Holland, who submitted the clever phrase,“Lundby’s 60th Anniversary: A Big Party in a Small World!” Reinaresponded to the announcement of the contest on the club website,www.toysmiles.com, and submitted the top slogan!

In addition to Reina’s entry, we thank four other members who sentsubmissions to the contest: Sharon Barton, CA;Kristi Raymond, AZ,Louana Singleton, IN; and Jenni Nolan, Dublin, Ireland.

One of these four contributors was a runner-up in the voting, soshe also wins a special prize. Her slogan is featured on page 4. ♥

Minneapolis Exhibition Warms HeartsOUTSIDE TEMPERATURES

were frigid in Minne-apolis, but inside the Amer-ican Swedish Institute (ASI)almost 100 passionate doll-house collectors warmed sig-nificantly during the February7 opening of a major exhibit,titled “Small Worlds: InteriorDesign in Miniature.”

Big Smiles for Small Worlds…SusanneHjelm, right, and friend ChristineKainu, who accompanied Susanne fromSweden to help with the exhibit, relaxthe day after the opening.

Continued on page 2

2 THE LUNDBY LETTER

The Children’s Corner

By Caitlin Butchart

Greetings from England!Two weekends ago, my mum took usto a Chinese New Year celebration.Wehad a great time, eating special foods,watching a traditional lion dance andgetting special red sweets from an oldChinese gentleman (a bit like FatherTime with a long beard). Mum says it’simportant to understand other people’sbeliefs and cultures so that we can havea better relationship with them andhopefully, we can gain a little peace inthe world.

This got me to thinking! Easter iscoming up for us, and I know that theChristian celebrations we have arenearly all taken from ancient pagan tra-ditions. I wondered if it is the same forother countries. A short Google searchlater, I uncovered a whole heap of funcelebrations about Easter.

So as this is for Lundby, I thoughtyou might be interested in a fewSwedish traditions! The one I like thebest was for Maundy Thursday. InSweden it was told that witches flewoff on broomsticks to dance with thedevil at Blåkulla. The girls dress up aswitches now and visit people’s houseswith birch twigs hung with feathers, tineggs, and ribbons to symbolize thebuds and new chicks of spring. Theygive each other decorated eggs muchlike we do. In some parts of Swedenthey light huge bonfires to scare thewitches away as they return after theirdancing!

Although they have different ways ofcelebrating, we all celebrate the samething, the coming of spring. I think it’sthe same with people—we are all dif-

ferent, but at thesame time, we alldo the same things.

Happy ChineseNew Year to youall and Glad Påsk(Happy Easter inSwedish). ♥

Caitlin

Two WLLC mem-bers from Sweden,Yvette Wadsted andSusanne Hjelm, fig-ured prominently inthe planning andinstallation of theexhibit, which cen-ters on a collection

of Swedish dollhouses in 1/16th scale fromthe 1950s through the present, reflectingtrends in Scandinavian interior design. Inaddition, a number of miniature 17th and18th century Swedish period rooms andgarden houses are displayed, as well as avariety of interiors courtesy of theMidwest Miniature Guild. The exhibitcontinues through May 13.

The “Small Worlds” exhibit featurescompletely furnished dollhouses from thecollection of Stockholm artist and writerYvette Wadsted. To chronicle Scandi-navian interior design from the 1950s tothe present,Yvette has organized Lundby,Micki Gemla, and Brio dollhouses and fur-niture around themes of Midsummer,Christmas, school graduation, and a birth-day party.The Micki Toy Company, ownerof Lundby of Sweden’s trade name, has

Minneapolis Exhibition—continued from page 1

also provided two contemporary dollhous-es, the new Stockholm and the Småland,from its most recent series.

Yvette has written the forthcomingbook “Modern Design in the Dolls’House,” and an exhibition of her dollhous-es was also shown in 2004-2005 at theBethnal Green Museum of Childhood inLondon. See the Autumn 2004 issue ofThe Lundby Letter for information aboutthat exhibit.

After a reception celebrating the open-ing, Susanne Hjelm, who owns a doll-house store in Stockholm and traveled toMinneapolis to set up the exhibit, spokeon “Swedish Dollhouse Makers andDesigners.” Her lecture focused on doll-houses as cherished playthings and hand-crafted miniatures admired as pieces of art.Susanne remarked that she was preparedfor the cold winter weather (–20 degrees)because “as a Swede, you have clothes forany weather.”

Lundby collectors are encouraged to visitthis captivating exhibition. If you would likemore information, contact Jan McElfish atjanmc@americanswedishinst.org or 612-871-4907.You can also check for museumlocation, schedule, and admission fees onthe club website, www.toysmiles.com.

♥

What’s New atLundby

By Sue Morse

KRISTINA ARONSSON, ProductManager, Micki Leksaker AB,

has graciously accepted our invi-tation to become an AdvisoryMember of the WLLC. Kristinahas already helped our club inmany ways, such as approving ouruse of the Lundby logos, making sugges-tions for tour stops in Sweden, and wel-coming us to visit the Micki facility inGemla, where product development andwarehouses are located.

Kristina sends us news of two Lundbyitems that were launched at theNuremberg Toy Show February 1-6.Pictured are the 2007 version of theAdvent Calendar (two other designs from2004 and 2005 are now retired) and a newStockholm set with two armchairs and apainting, “Bambi,” by Lisa Rinnevuo.

The painting is the third which Lisa hascreated exclusively for Lundby. For more

information on the artist, see PatriciaHarrington’s article, “Artist’s InspirationAppeals to All Ages,” in the September2006 issue of The Lundby Letter.

The arm chairs are designed after onesavailable in life size by the interior archi-tects, Ann Morsing and Beban Nord ofBox Design, who were commissioned tocreate the new 2005 Stockholm dollhouse.

We are grateful to Kristina for thisbreaking news. She admits that she doesn’tknow much about Lundby’s history, butour new Advisory Member knows quite abit about Lundby’s present and future!

♥

2007 Advent Calendar, left, and “Bambi” by Lisa Rinnevuo and chairsby Box Design, right. Photos courtesy of Micki Toy Company.

March 2007 3

Lundby Connections

MEET REINA OLTHOF, our 60th Anniver-sary Slogan winner, and Lundby collec-tor. Congratulations are in order! Reina is25 years old and lives in the northern partof Holland in a small village namedKornhorn. Not only does she own a fabu-lous website, www.lundby.eigenstart.nl,but she also sent us a photo of a rareLundby kitchen cabinet that she purchasedrecently. Note that the grey surface of thecabinet matches the design on the table.

This particular table was featured in aMarch 2006 article in The Lundby Letter byYvette Wadsted. Formica patterns from the1960s and 1970s are shown on all four of theLundby tables. Reina, our thanks for sharingyour creativity and a rare Lundby photo!

♥Mail Order Express has recently filledseveral current Lundby orders fromCarolyn Frank, VA, and she highly rec-ommends their service.

Mail Order Express is the mail orderdivision of multi-award winning independ-ent toy retailer, Arbon & Watts Ltd. A fulland fantastic range of Lundby dollhouses,furniture, and accessories and over 15,000other toys, games, puzzles, and crafts areavailable at www.MailOrderExpress.com.They advertise their Lundby products asbeing primarily contemporary to reflect amodern day house, but there are still classicpieces for the more traditionally inclined.

♥An Unexpected Lundby Sighting Story… Charlene Williams, FL, reports that herdaughter, Joelle, follows an animatedBritish TV show called “Charlie and Lola”on the Disney Channel. One morning inDecember, Charlene also happened to bewatching and she saw the little girl, Lola,playing with a dollhouse that featured twoitems of Lundby furniture! The dollhousewas mostly animated, except for theLundby pieces, the Romance sofa and thestereo cabinet from the 1970s. Charlenewould love to hear if anyone in the clubknows more about the show’s creator orillustrator. That would make for a greatinterview!

Why orange instead of beige carpeting?Charlene also asks if any other club mem-ber has an orange carpet (to match the

funky wallpaper) in the right-hand bedroomon the top floor of the Stockholm house.

♥Lacking Plasticote in the US, we won-dered in our last issue whether the plasticpaint, known to brighten discolored plas-tic, is obtainable in other countries. Sureenough, Stella Goodman wrote that it issold in the UK. She says Plasticote reallydoes work well to gloss over metal andplastic. It comes in a small paint tub whichStella is sure can be shipped. Please let herknow if you are interested in buying some.

Stella’s daughter is selling her Lundbycollection, so stay tuned at Stella’s eBayID, bluecatsmum.

Do you own both versions of the chil-dren’s tables with the runic characters?Honestly, we didn’t notice there were twountil sharp-eyed Marion Osborne, UK,pointed them out. One has white paintsurrounding the symbols and the otheroutline is painted black. Marion notes theround table with black was first introducedabout 1977, and then both black andwhite versions were available in 1985.

As shown in a 1985 catalog, again theblack surround is part of children’s den set(Item #9752) with the bunk beds, table, pine

chairs, and blackboard, while just the whiteoutlined table and chairs were available inItem #7508. Only the white surround setappears in the 1986 and 1987 catalogs.

♥Klaradal, Swedish Antiques & Furnish-ings, Sue and Peter Kopperman’s shop inOlney, MD, will soon be decked out withSue’s finds on her 12-day January trip toSweden. She discovered a little bit of everything including silhouettes,Vinranka china,Swedish tin pieces, original oil paintings,water colors, vintage linens, lace, a classicSwedish gold wall clock from the 1940s,costume dolls, great hand-painted vintagepicture frames, and lovely Gustavian furni-ture from the Dalarna region.

Are you sufficiently tempted? Email SueKopperman at klaradal@aol.com or call herat 301/570-2557 to see when these wonder-ful Swedish items will arrive in the US.

♥The bat chairs keep coming! After thegreat photo in the December 2006 issue ofGeorge Mundorf ’s yellow Lundby batchair, we received some photos from PeterPehrsson of bat chairs that he createdhimself!!

Peter explained, “I also wanted a batchair, but it was very expensive here too.So I asked Elisabeth Lantz to measure herchair and I built one by myself. It’s a bittricky to build it, but I am pleased withthe result. I fit the legs with a bit of steelwire—that’s the tricky part!”

Please send more bat chair stories! ♥

Celebrate at Lundby Gatherings

GET TO KNOW YOUR FELLOW MEMBERS and learn more about Lundby! Plans areunderway for two opportunities to join your fellow WLLC members on 60th

anniversary trips.The first opportunity is a meeting on June 1-3 to tour the new Swedish embassy,

the House of Sweden, in Washington, D.C., to view members’ collections, and toattend the Eastern National Antique and Modern Doll Show in Gaithersburg,Maryland. Secondly, tentative arrangements are being made to offer a five to seven-day tour of Sweden in September. It would include stops in Gothenburg,Vänersborg, Stockholm, and Gemla, among others.

Preliminary sign-up forms have yielded six members for the June event and tenmembers for the September event. However, we need an accurate count of howmany members we can actually expect, so please complete the registration formsenclosed in this mailing. If you need more information, check the club website orplease email us at toysmiles@aol.com. ♥

4 THE LUNDBY LETTER

Coming Up in theJune 2007 Issue

� Lundby’s Fourth Ten Years—1977-1987

� Reports on Visits to “SmallWorlds” Exhibit

� Commemorative Lundby Pieces

� June & September Gatherings

� Interviews

The Lundby Letter is pub-lished quarterly for members ofthe We Love Lundby Club.If you have any inquiries aboutan article, or if you are inter-

ested in submitting a story or project of your own,please do not hesitate to write or email us.

THE LUNDBY LETTERWe Love Lundby Club

6347 Waterway DriveFalls Church, VA 22044

www.toysmiles.com Email: toysmiles@aol.comEditor: Sue MorseAdvisory Members: Kristina Aronsson

Carolyn FrankPatricia HarringtonMarion OsbornePeter PehrssonRichard SmithYvette Wadsted

Design: Don Christian© 2007, We Love Lundby Club. All rights reserved.

Permission has been granted to use the Lundby logo.

OF SWEDEN

PENNSYLVANIA BORN Linda Hubbard,who is retired from the banking indus-

try and living in St.Augustine, FL, is proudof her Swedish heritage through hergrandparents. However, Linda had neverheard of Lundby of Sweden dollhousesuntil 2005 when a friend bought aGothenburg, two extensions, and somefurniture for $10.00 in a thrift shop. Herfriend sold the whole lot to Linda and thatstarted her search for more informationabout Lundby. She was hooked!

Seeking more pieces, she went on eBayand purchased some Lundby items fromPatricia Harrington. Linda describes herfirst encounter with Patricia like this,“Oneof the first pieces I bought on eBay wasthe blue Leksand corner kitchen cabinet,and when I received it, Patricia hadenclosed a tiny Swedish flag with it! I hadtold her in an email that I had Swedish

ancestors and liv-ing relatives inSweden. She was abig help to mewhen I was justgetting started.”

Linda continuesthat Patricia sug-gested she look on-line for a Lundbycatalog and also ex-plained about the

Members in Focus NINTH IN A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS

By Sue Morse

different scales of furniture and ac-cessories.All this information was veryimportant to Linda as a “newbie” andshe’s very grateful to Patricia.

Linda grew up in Landsdowne, PA,hearing stories of how her Swedishgrandparents met in Braddock, PA,the place they immigrated to the USseparately in 1891 and 1901. Andersand Alida Johannesson were marriedin 1903. While Linda’s grandfatherlived to be 92 years old, she neverknew her grandmother, who diedbefore she was born. Her grandfatheradopted the name John Johnson inthe US and the family in Swedengoes by Johansson, having dropped one ofthe ns and an e from the original name,Johannesson.

Obtaining decorating ideas from TheLundby Letter and from other members isLinda’s best benefit from being a memberof the WLLC. “The craft projects aregreat!” says Linda.

Linda’s favorite Lundby pieces are amixture of vintage and current items.Theyinclude the Leksand pieces, the paraffinceiling lamp, the advent candle arches, andthe Dutch tile stove. She would love to seethe Micki Company design and producesome Swedish nostalgia pieces from thelate 1800s when her grandparents lived inSweden. Another desire of Linda’s is tobuild a dollhouse that follows the sameplan as her grandmother’s ancestral home,which she visited in Sweden.

Although Linda still has ties to Pennsyl-vania through her sister, Karen, and her fam-ily, she is fortunate that her son anddaughter and families live near St. Augus-tine. Her grandchildren range in age from13-20. Linda’s eBay ID is Linda5153. ♥

A Lundby dollhouse decorates Linda’s computer room in her St.Augustine condo, along with a pelican needlepoint, another one ofher collecting passions since she moved to Florida in 1977. Hercurrent project is a handmade quilt.There just aren’t enough hoursin the day for all of Linda’s hobbies!

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Anders and Alida Johannesson, Linda’s Swedishgrandparents on their wedding day.

Is Lundby’s Gold Chair aCommemorative?Calling all Lundby sleuths! A visitor toour website, Russell Sayer, UK, sent thisphoto of the Lundby gold chair with aquestion about whether it could be ajubilee chair to celebrate the 40th anniver-sary of Lundby 1947-1987. Can any of ourmembers confirm this?

In the next issue of The Lundby Letter wewill feature some of Lundby’s other com-memorative pieces. ♥

“It’s Never Too Late” foran Additional WinnerBecause Jenni Nolan, Dublin, Ireland,submitted a contest slogan that was a closerunner-up in the voting, she wins a freeyear’s club membership for 2008. Jenni’sslogan, “It’s Never Too Late to Have aSwedish Childhood,” was a favorite ofMarilynn Abrams, CA, who suggestedthat Jenni’s slogan could be appropriatelyused for more than one year. It justseemed to be the perfect slogan to featurewhen the 60th anniversary is past.

After the big party is over, it’s never toolate to have a Swedish childhood!Congratulations, Jenni! ♥