The 18th century baby house was the oldest house in the museum. Housed in a non-architectural glass fronted cabinet on stand, the exterior displays an aged coat of very old and dry black, bubbled paint with faded gilt accents. The two glass-paned doors unlock to reveal four rooms with faux rear sash windows and faux doors between the rooms, which are decorated with period wallpapers over an earlier surface. Those earlier wall treatments are visible in some places where the paper has lifted or separated with age. The rooms are beautifully proportioned and accommodate furnishings in a range of scales in typical English baby house fashion. The parlor features a wonderful Georgian mantel and dado. The room is furnished with an early German cabinet, three Chippendale ribbon-back chairs, a smaller comb-back Windsor chair and an elegant writing desk with leather top. Also, two small English wooden dolls and some later metal accessories including a Vienna bronze pot of daisies. The kitchen includes a large grain-painted corner cupboard, a primitive Welsh dresser filled with mostly newer pottery, a brass cooking range with copper kettle and covered pot, and an old pine bucket bench. Numerous chairs are dispersed throughout the room, including three old English chairs and four early twentieth century reproduction Governor Carver chairs with cushioned seats. An unusual wooden wing chair is decorated with sponge painting and Pennsylvania folk art motifs. Other items include an early table with old paint, a small Saxony flax wheel, a painted tin bucket, and numerous items of glass, treenware and pottery. Dolls include a peg wooden doll in homemade dress and beribboned bonnet, and a frozen Charlotte baby in a basket cradle. Vibrant wallpapers adorn the bedrooms, which are furnished with four-poster beds draped with lavish bed-hangings. The left bedroom's understated pine bed is stylishly adorned with antique chintz. Other furnishings include a mahogany chest of drawers, another ribbon-back Chippendale chair, a fine inlaid corner washstand and a heavily glazed wooden cradle with a small jointed peg-wooden doll. Another small wooden doll sits in the chair while a tiny peg wooden leans against the cradle. A framed silhouette decorates the rear wall. The other bedroom features an older pine canopied bed elaborately dressed with jacquard-woven fabric and also a fringed needlepoint rug. Also a tall mahogany chest of drawers, a pair of very old Chippendale chairs with carved backs (one has a damaged leg), an early Waltershausen table and a wing chair with red silk upholstery. A jointed English peg wooden doll inhabits this room.
Size: 36" w, 22" d, 49" t.

very good (wear to papers and furniture as noted)