I know I’m supposed to be completing the decoration of my Sid Cooke toy shop before I fill it, but I’ve succumbed again, as I found some more things for my dollhouse toy shop – and these ones are really, really good!
A few weeks ago, I showed you the tiny dolls for dollhouse dolls that I bought from Diane Yunnie in South Africa, along with the child doll in the red coat – well, I happened to come across another website based in South Africa that sells miniatures from all over the world, and more of Diane’s lovely dolls were featured on it. The site is called Petit Connoisseurs. It had several dolls by Diane that were adults, besides the child and ‘micro doll’ sized ones. I hadn’t known that Diane did adult ones, so I was really pleased to see these.
I bought this beautiful lady doll, which will be the mother for the child doll I previously bought – they will be the customers in my toy shop.
Isn’t she lovely? She’s fully jointed, so she can be posed really well, and due to the way the skirt fans out onto the ground, she doesn’t need a doll stand to keep her upright.
Diane is such a neat dollmaker – look at the reverse of the doll – everything is so precise!
At the same time that I bought the doll, I bought this miniature toy ark as well. I’ve wanted to get an ark for over twenty years! I wanted one for the nursery of my 1:12 Georgian town house originally, but I’ve never been able to find one that I liked. Often, they are wooden, and quite basic and chunky, or painted too brightly. This one, though, is painted pewter, and has a lot of detail. The animals are just gorgeous, and so tiny! The human figures are about a centimetre high, to give you an idea of the scale.
There are eight pairs of animals including the doves on the roof, plus the people.
The ladder is removable, and the roof comes off the ark (but you can’t fit all the animals inside – I’ve tried!).
I’m not sure who originally made this, as it was sold as a ‘pre-owned’ item from Petit Connoisseurs. If you haven’t been to their website before, I’d recommend it, as they have a lot of unusual things. But hide your credit card first!
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Janet Granger's Blog 
Those dolls are absolutely stunning! The detail and care taken with the costume design is so good, and I love the little Noah’s Ark toy! What a super addition to your Toy Shop stock. Lovely! 🙂
I was so pleased to get both of them. The dress of the doll is just superb!
Great website… thanks for the heads up! Love Diane Yunnie’s work too.
I have a Noah’s Ark and animals made by Warwick Miniatures… yours looks identical but is a different colour. It’s possible it’s an earlier version by WM… I know they guarded their designs very closely so it’s unlikely to be by another maker. Does it have any marking on the bottom of the ark?
I hadn’t thought to look at the base! It says ‘Copyright J Arnold. Made in England.’in really weeny letters. Did a J Arnold own Warwick Miniatures? It’s made of pewter, and is good quality, so I don’t think it’s a knock-off of someone’s work. And it was ‘pre-owned’, so I don’t know quite how old it is, but it’s not brand new. I’ve never seen one like it, and think it’s great.
I used to deal with the chap who owned Warwick Miniatures before he retired and Phoenix Model Developments bought his molds. His name was Jeff but I can’t remember his surname. I’ll have a look at the base of mine to see if it’s the same….
Yep….. mine says the same on the base of the ark. I’d say yours is an earlier version of the set I have. I’ve had mine for almost 20 years. 🙂
Ah! I’ve got other Warwick Miniatures stuff, but didn’t think this could be. Interesting that it was bought via South Africa, then. These minis get all over the world….