A Little Red Coconut from Papa Ted's Collection

[Tom Hull]

Until I received this house I was completely unaware of how special this house is. I did notice the different base and the two doors (with the smaller one being on for a candy box house,) but that was all. First let us start with the coconut. This one is unusual in that not only was it a good job of application it was in nearly MINT condition only one slightly poked door and the completely faded out GREEN windows gave any sense of age on this one.
But lets look at these items piece by piece. First the base is made on an oblique angle ONLY doable on an open base. But wait aren't those only on the very late Foil sticker houses and Dolly Toy houses? Well apparently not. My sis had a saying that the exception proves the rule and that applies here. The last shot into the large back hole of this oblique house shows a punched opening to the added "room" and this is also somewhat unusual.

[Tom Hull]

These two are detail close ups featuring the coconut. This is how it is Supposed to look. Also the oval export mark appears to have a dot behind the word JAPAN. that is touching the oval and I have identified that mark as belonging to one of the larger makers of coconut houses judging from the amount of product the produced.

[paulrace]

Tom, that's a very unusual piece in very unusual condition - glad it found its way to a good home!

[Lynn]

Hi Tom

Let me start by saying I love this house. I notice one side does not have the coconut. I have seen this several times on other houses including the Gain Elevator house I made. It puzzles me why they did this.... Thanks for sharing.

[Tom Hull]

Hi Tom

Let me start by saying I love this house. I notice one side does not have the coconut. I have seen this several times on other houses including the Gain Elevator house I made. It puzzles me why they did this.... Thanks for sharing.

I understand what you are saying and in THIS one the "Blank Wall" with no coconut is on the "hidden" side of the oblique. I have noticed this a number of times on the oblique houses. I guess the reasoning was this side wasn't really supposed to be seen from the front though of course it is. Just a way to conserve the Coconut I imagine.

[Pete R.Oehmen]

Thanks for the post Tom. I was going to do a post addressing the attachment of coconut to the putz houses. To do the subject justice I was going to do a series of photo. Lucky for me Tom already posted a set so we can start the discussion. Please note photos number 4 & 5. These are close ups of the balding roof. Thanks to the quality of the photos you'll notice the roughness and texture the the underlying stucco/gesso. Now look at some of the coconut that is still attached. You'll see that the coconut is embedded into the stucco/Gesso. The technique that the Japanese used was to slake the plaster of Paris (http://users.zoominternet.net/~yvianne/ ... aster.html) this makes a pure Gesso. Once they had the Gesso they would incorporate glue into the mixture. This mixture was then colored. One at a time they would coat a section of the putz house with the wet Gesso and then dunk the house into a vat of the desired coconut thus embedding the coconut down into the Gesso then let that area dry. They may have taken large hand fulls of the coconut and jammed it on to the area being covered. Either way what you wind up with is the desired 3D look of the coconut standing up instead of laying down. I'm fortunate enough that I can make lots of coconut so I can put a thick coat of glue on a needed area and jam the coconut into place instead of patting it down/on. That of course flattens the coconut and defeats our desired effect. When I build brand new designed houses I use the original Japanese methods. The results are convincing enough to believe the finished piece is vintage. Out of all the houses I have, repaired or torn apart I have never seen the coconut applied/glued over a finished smooth surface. Let me know what you have observed. Thanks for the photos Tom. Pete