Tasha Tudor First Friday Book Review and A Big Tasha Score!

Happy 4th of July! I hope you got to enjoy my Tea Time Thursday post to celebrate the RED WHITE and BLUE! It's also my Tasha Tudor First Friday Book Review day. Jimmy and I went to a sale last weekend and one of the items I got was a copy of THE DOLL'S HOUSE by Rumer Godden and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. I have read it before, but it's a fun read, so I wanted to refresh my memory.
It is a darling book about two sisters who receive a doll house that has been been in the family. The dolls are delighted and you get to follow their story. Tottie is a little wooden Dutch doll and my favorite. The dolls WISH for things to happen and they often do!
The original version of the book was published in 1948 and it was illustrated by Dana Saintbury.
May Massee, who was an editor at Viking Press, was the one responsible for publishing Tasha's very first book~PUMPKIN MOONSHINE. Tasha and May remained friends and even though she had retired, she introduced Rumer and Tasha. They became friends and Rumer visited Tasha at her New Hampshire home. Tasha also visited Rumer in England when she spent a year there.
The book was reprinted in 1962.

The dollhouse family...Mr Plantaganet, Birdie, Apple and Tottie. Pick up the book and enjoy! It is available in paper back form and it's not expensive. If you like HITTY and MISS HICKORY, you will  enjoy this book.

I had so much fun at the sale! The lady was a sewer, a doll person, a miniature collector and she had a dollhouse. The house was loaded and written up as a "digger"...the kind of sales I love! We went back the next day for the half price sale. Lots of goodies to keep and lots to sell.

A few treats for Miss Annabelle! She now has a better sized quilt rack and a wooden ladder! She likes Estate Sales too!

So, you are wondering about the title of this blog post...what was the big score???? The second day when we went back to the sale, I was digging around in one of the rooms and I saw this box. If you are a Tasha Tudor fan, you know that one of her little companies was called THE JENNY WREN PRESS. I was ordering goodies from the company when I was first introduced to Tasha. So, I got excited when I pulled this box out of a pile of things. What was inside?

When I opened the box, it was filled with all kinds of things from the Jenny Wren era. Lots of advertising, envelopes, letters, sticker and fun things for my collection.

There were 6 catalogs to look through. Oh, I wish all of the goodies were still available!

I opened an envelop and squealed with delight! A copy of THE JENNY WREN BOOK OF VALENTINES and the little doll sized Valentines and envelopes. A score for sure! But wait, there's more!

I found the first 6 issues of the TAKE JOY! magazine in the box. These were published from Tasha's next company...Corgi Cottage Industries. They are really fun and filled with all kinds of interesting articles for the Tasha fan. These are from 1997. Two more copies were published in 1998 before that company was ended. Another score! These are very spendy on Ebay!

 This invitiation to afternoon tea is so sweet! It was all tucked into the envelope and had a return envelope with it. All of these items are in really great condition!

Then I found one more treasure. There was a copy of THE LETTER...a little newsletter that was once published by Elaine Hollabaugh. She would have fans send in photos and stories of interest.  I found some very interesting correspondence from Elaine to the lady who's house I was in...Donna Turner.
Donna was living in Klamath Falls, Oregon at the time. She made a miniature room depicting the cover of Tasha's book BUTT'RY SHELF COOKBOOK. Donna wanted to submit it to THE LETTER and Elaine accepted the offer, however, Donna got the information to Elaine too late for publication.
I couldn't find anything to tell me if it was ever published. I was left wondering.

When I was on my trip back east, I wasn't able to go shopping, so I came home with most of my spending money. I decided to order the book THE DIRECTION OF HER DREAMS by WM John and Priscilla Hare who own The Cellar Door Books. It is a very large book, filled with a lot of information on Tasha's books, publications, newsletters, magazines and even articles and advertising flyers. It is spendy, but I have had it on my wish list for quite some time. I was looking through the book for some information on THE LETTER and found that in the Fall 1987 issue, Donna's miniature scene was featured! I looked to see if I could buy a copy, but I could not find one anywhere. I was looking through my Tasha things and what did I find....the copy of THE LETTER that I needed!!!
I only had two copies of it and can you believe, the fall issue was there? I still cannot believe it.

Here's the article and the photo. It was not at the sale when we arrived, so I have no idea what happened to it. I don't know if Donna is still living. It was so amazing that I was in her home and have many of her items now in my collection. It was so neat to find another Oregonian who loved Tasha. We do love her too, even if we don't live in New England.  Yes, another score!

Oh the best part.....the box wasn't priced. When we took it up to the counter, I was sure it was going to be quite a bit, but I was willing to pay the price. The gal who runs the sales looked at it and said,
"How about one dollar?" A dollar! I am still so excited and will keep it all in my Tasha Tudor collection.