At this point the reader may be
wondering how Grey
House Creations
furniture is connected to Madame Alexander furniture.
Jean
Mahan sheds some light on that topic in her wonderful book
Doll
Furniture 1950’s -1980’s
when she explains that
Madame Alexander’s wooden 50’s painted white
furniture with decals
was not actually crafted by the Alexander doll company
though the pieces bore a Madame Alexander gold foil sticker.
She goes on to say
that Madame’s line was most likely made
by an unknown cottage industry as no
Madame Alexander furniture
contracts were recorded during that 50’s time
period.
Prior to reading Jean’s book, I had mistakenly assumed
that any 50’s
pastel painted furniture pieces similar to
Madame’s famous white furniture
line
were simply home made copies that fathers made for their daughters.
I am
sure some pieces that exist today are just that.
I had been more than happy to
buy what I thought were
darling “knock off’s” for my current collection
of
vintage Ginny and Muffie dolls.
But Jean’s suggestion got me to wondering if I
could solve the mystery
and find the company Madame used. It wasn't an easy
task.
I began to suspect that there might be a connection
between
Madame Alexander furniture and a company called
“Grey
House Creations,"
but I couldn’t find any information on the company.
Over the years I have won several pieces of pastel Ginny doll size furniture
and
the more pieces I have collected, the more I have found
that this
furniture I love is all labeled by the same maker, “Grey
House Creations."
In addition I noticed that several auctions with
white doll furniture
bearing Madame’s label had
additional info posted
below the item description from an S. Scova or M. Scova
explaining that their father
had made the Madame Alexander white furniture line!
I compared my white Alexander
labeled furniture
to my labeled Grey
House Creations pastel pieces
and wondered if perhaps my pieces weren’t knock-offs after all,
but rather
earlier or later pieces created by the same maker
of Madame Alexander’s white
painted furniture line.
In one of the Ebay auction
comments, M. Scova
(this later
turned out to be Maryanne Scova Rosenberg
or ‘Mimi’
as
she refers to herself)
had explained that a 50’s photo with she and her Dad
was displayed in the
Heritage
Doll
Museum
in New York City
along with his 50’s furniture.
I had a friend in New York
verify this was true
and the furniture she saw in the museum display
was not
only Madame’s white furniture
but other earlier
made pieces as well.
The museum confirmed for her that the cottage company
who
made Madame’s white line was in fact called Grey
House Creations,
and the maker was Mimi’s Dad, John Scova.
As it turns out, many of the cherry stained wooden
and
painted pastel furniture pieces
I own labeled “Grey
House Creations”
are examples of John Scova’s early doll furniture,
pieces that captured Madame Alexander’s interest.
I felt almost ready to write
this article as I had several photos to share,
but I kept wishing I had even
more information about Grey House
and
how it operated in the 50’s.
Through Facebook and sheer luck, I took a chance
and contacted a Maryanne Scova Rosenberg
in Hawthorne, NY
and she re-confirmed that Grey
House Creations
was once her
family’s doll furniture business
and her father was the John Scova
who made the white furniture for Madame Alexander-kins,
Little Genius, and Cissette in the 50’s.
She was only too happy to share her
childhood memories
about their family business and close friendship with Madame
Alexander.
Her Mother Jeanne is
still alive
and she too played an important role in the company.