DOLL'S HOUSE MUSEUM - BASEL
Puppenhausmuseum - Teddy Bears to Carousels
From
the street front in the heart of old Basel on a corner of Barfusserplatz
with trolleys trundling past, it appears
rather like a toy store, though of distinctively fascinating
vintage toys. Though certainly of high interest to collectors and those
children who never grew up, attracted to play objects of days gone by,
this is not a store but a museum. The Puppenhausmuseum of Basel (Doll
House Museum), taking up four floors of a building
which itself dates back to 1867, is a wonderland of childhood memories
from a private collection.
With its exhibits of more than 6,000 items, displayed in elegantly finished
wood and glass cases, presented in an imaginative playful way, gathered
together by theme, it feels more like a child’s playroom than museum.
The
Doll’s House Museum of Basel holds is the largest collection
of its kind in Europe. On the lower floors the collection focuses more
on the doll houses and miniatures it’s name would seem to imply.
Yet, the doll’s
house museum is perhaps less about houses for dolls than it is about
dolls – and stuffed bears, with the world’s largest collection
of vintage pre-1950 Teddy Bears – well over two thousand. The Teddy
Bears are throughout the museum, interacting with the other dolls and
toys,
grooming each other, teaching the alphabet to porcelain faced dolls in
lace dresses. The bears even compete in a car race and head out on a
picnic. Many of the scene settings are mechanically operated, run
by computerized systems activated by the press of a button. Each floor
has an interactive information station, providing the visitor with the
story of the items on display.
The dolls
and bears which inhabit the whole of the displays are from a variety
of world
renowned manufacturers, mostly from between 1870 and
1920, when the doll craze was flourishing in the houses and nurseries
of the industrial age. On the fourth floor is an exhibit which features
one of the museums most prized possessions, a 1904 Steiff “PGB35” Teddy
Bear unique for its metal frame behind the embroidered nose with five
articulated claws. The “Teddy Bear” got its name from an
incident in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt encountered a bear
in a series of newspaper cartoons. The Margarete Steiff Company in Germany
came to world prominence with its version of the stuffed bear (see Steiff
World Germany). Many of the bears at the Basel museum are Steiff and
the innovative seamstress who overcame polio as a child to bring wonder
to children the world over is honored with her own exhibit. Other changing
exhibits are featured at the museum with loans from other collections.
Visiting the Doll’s House Museum
The Puppenhaus
Museum is open daily from 10am to 6 pm. Admission is 7 CHF for adults.
Children
under 16 are free when accompanied by an adult,
otherwise 5 CHF. There is a café for meals and snacks and a museum
shop, offering a wide range of hand-crafted and manufactured bears from
around the world as well as miniatures and doll house furnishings, cards,
stationary and souvenirs. © Bargain
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ALSO:
MUSEUM OF MUSIC AUTOMATONS - SEEWEN
