Unusual trees

[Nan]

Of my 7 putz houses from the 1930s, 3 are from Japan. The houses themselves are in reasonably good (repairable) condition, but each has a tree that crumbles when touched. (Sorry I don't have photos.) One tree was badly damaged when I got it, so I pried it off of the base to see what could be done. It is of bottle-brush tree construction, perhaps made with straw "branches" that have been twisted into the wire in the usual bottle-brush tree style. The base is a round of light-weight cardboard with a tiny hole in the center and the 2-ply wire is pushed through the base and then spread, much as a very weak clasp on a clasp envelope. A heavy dab of glue cemented the trunk into the base. The whole thing is painted green, with white "snow" dabbed on the ends of the branches and the base is then glued to the base on which the house itself rests (is glued). The trees are more attractive than the bottle brush trees we see nowadays, because the straw? branches are thicker, but the trees won't survive restoration. The branches come off with a light touch. I haven't seen, in photos and such, any trees quite like these, and I'm hoping someone can give me some information on them.

[Nan]

I'm hoping I can upload these photos of the unusual trees.

[Tom Hull]

Indeed these ARE very early. I would guess this type of straw brush tree would have been from about 1930 to no later than around 1933. Just guessing but that is my feel for it. The only times I have seen these (MOST infrequently) are on houses from this era. Mine were part of the Lacquies group. Concurrently there were sisal type Bottle brush trees but much different from the later productions we are so familiar with and also concurrently there were the Loofah sponge trees. I think all likely existed at the same time but this straw type is the rarest. Of course later throughout the 1930s the trees were a loofah type. Tom

[Nan]

Thanks so much for the information, Tom. It really helps being able to get more of an understanding of what I'm working with. What a treasure this whole site is!

[Tom Hull]

I recently purchased an early VERY Large based house with HUGE trees of this sort on it. It also has paint bordered roofs - in the case of mine they are corrugated. Notice the similarity of the bases of all these houses of green with dark texture of some kind over it with no fences. The one house you have incorporates both the tube trees and a luffa sponge shrubbery. I believe this maker was quite early and short lived as the products of this company are very limited. Either this company or another produced the multis given the paint bordered roofs but the "trees" etc were in fact chenille rather than the tube type.