Hi there, Happy Sunday. Does anyone recognize this house or has seen a putz house with a dog figure? The house is 6" X 4" X 6" tall. It has very small windows with no cellophanes, 1/2 covered at the top with snow. Base is foil covered with cellophane over top, and roof has saran wrap on part of it?? It's the strangest combo of things I've seen. It does have some coconut on the base and the old sponge tree on a stem. The fences is also something I haven't seen with wire running between the posts. It's hard to tell what the pink/red part of the roof is under the plastic wrap, could it also be foil? Any help would be appreciated, my friend wants to purchase on ebay and asked my advice, so of course, I turn to the experts. Thankyou kindly...Colleen

wish i could help...but can't...other than to say...absolutely the "most unusual" house i have ever seen...

howard...

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Sorry, not an expert, but the Saran Wrap on the roof doesn't look original to me. but the dog and most of thing do. Wonder if it was someone's attempt at a restoration. If it doesn't go for TOO much, it might be worth it for the dog.

Tom? Pete?

The saran wrap - if that is what it is is somewhat confusing. In fact for a house this small (6" L x 6" H) it has an awful lot of features and I too feel unsure of it but would like to get it myself if it doesn't go too high just to see what it is. There were dogs like that on houses but they were always much larger things and this may have been cannibalized from a different house. Likewise the fence is a type of fence that was used but again not on this small of a house. I have seen foil roofs before and some were covered with cellophane but usually a contrasting color such as red cello over purple foil. Foil bases trim like that is rare too and this has a purple cellophane over blue. But believe the bottom of this may be missing. The seller doesn't show the bottom and thinks it is German so it looks like the bottom is missing as this is CLEARLY old Japan. The seller also mentions the bottom is pink! Which either means the bottom was painted pink or missing the bottom and what is left is painted pink. The seller mentions the base as being split at all four corners. I question whether the dog came on this house and expect it to go beyond my means to know any more as I won't likely be able to afford it. TKH

Radko did a repro putz house with this dog

The roof was probably once wrapped in cellophane. That treatment is not unique, but is rare. Check out the HOM January 2001. Sometimes the foil was colored and the cello was clear. Other times the foil was silver or colored and the cello also colored. I have never seen a foil wrapped base, however. I think the technique lasted for perhaps one season because the cello would dry and split. I have a set of 5 or 6 small-med houses with foil roofs, and before I got those, I had never seen that treatment on a putz house. Since then I have seen others.
However, I suspect this house is early because the fence type was used on candy box houses of the 1920's.
The corrugated trim at the base of the house, on the balcony, and the chimney is also an early detail. The more complicated the details, the older the house (usually).
The dog figure is also on Antoinette's HOM for December 2003.
Lots of folks have this auction bookmarked, so whoever gets it, please share the info or send it to Pete O for documentation in the "book."

Tom, I didn't mean that necessarily IS Saran Wrap, only that it's way newer than the house IMHO - How or why someone raised the snow part and recovered the roof with a modern-day plastic we may never know, although they may have see remnant of an old celophane coating and thought this would be a way to restore. VERY interesting. Thanks to all who responded. I reached out to Pete, too, but haven't heard back from him yet.

I DO agree with Kathi that several of the details, like the corrugated balcony(?) say VERY OLD. IMHO the original "shell" of the house is early an authentic. I'm just not sure about the whole thing.

- Paul

Very interesting indeed. I've spent some studying and comparing these photos to other sources and I readied an archeological deduction. Thanks to Kathi and Tom they answered two very important questions that I had. It's good to know that there are other samples of foil covered with cellophane. (Notice, on the roof, that the cellophane covers the foil yet goes under the white gesso and coconut, or should I say the gesso was added over the cellophane.) A very fun technique, trying to make things even shinny-er. This confirms, to me, that the roof/s are original. If you look at the HOM, that Kathi points out, for January 2001 you'll notice 3 features that are shared with this house... 1. It's very rare to see raw twigs used as fence posts, both this house and the HOM have them. 2. The wire fence rails where regularly used on the original larger Lacquies. 3. The use of exposed (one sided) corrugated cardboard as trim around the base is common to both. First conclusion is the piece is real. Second conclusion is the piece is from Ted's third period "The Coconuts" 1928 to 1936.

The curious thing that nobody has mentioned so far is the picture of the back of the house. There is no light hole? Did the designers have a hole that comes up from the bottom? If so was it made specifically for Train layout? I wouldn't think so because I've never, ever seen a hole purposely made in the bottom. The windows and door are made so that they would glow if a light was employed. Strange, any ideas?

By observing the joining of house to the base, the fence posts to the base and I'm pretty sure even the dog to the base everything is original to the placement during it's construction. The paper door is even original and not a replacement. Notice the white gesso and coconut that drip over the edge of the top of the base down the sides of the foil sides of the base; all original, nothing added later. Sure would love to see the bottom view. At first I thought this was a bogus piece but now I believe it's absolutely real and unique. I haven't been able to tell what's happening over the balcony but it looks like rolled paper bent to match the curve of that balcony to create it's roof? Small but rare? How much will it sell for?

Pete, thanks for "filling in the blanks." - Paul

You're welcome Paul. I had the seller re-post some new pictures at her auction site. They basically show me that my findings
are accurate. But having it my hands will tell me for sure.