Circle Grocery grocers shop
| Exhibit |
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Circle Grocery grocers shop |
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| location: |
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Arch Two , Area 17 1960s |
A pale blue wooden British "Circle Grocery" play shop, probably made in or around the 1960s.
Description
The shop consists of a set of side and back shelving, painted in pale blue, with the top shelf painted red and with an upright red signboard with red paper label, reading "CIRCLE GROCERY", flanked by white-on-blue advertising panels for "Brooke Bond Edgelets Tea" and "Brooke Bond Choicest Tea".
The shelves are populated with a range of toy tins and packets carrying packaging artwork of real products, from Lyons and Nescafe coffee to Monarch sliced carrots, Fray Bentos corned beef and Surf washing powder.
Possible identification
One of these play shops has sold on ebay identified by the seller as being by Kaybot Wheeler, a company that was wound up in 1973.
We haven't confirmed this identification, but it seems plausible – Kaybot specialised in making painted plaster dollhouse models of plated food, while John V. Wheeler's Wheeler Woodcrafts made wooden dollhouses. It would be natural for the combined company to make toy grocery shops stocked with toy food (although the "Circle Grocer's" play shop is stocked with packaged items rather than painted plaster).
External links
- Kaybot Novelties and Kay Miniatures, by Rebecca Green (dollshousespastandpresent.com)
- Photos: Wheeler Woodcrafts (dollshousespastandpresent.com)
