ordningsfrun: Lundby Manor furniture

In 1981 Lundby made one of their rarer dollhouse models: the Manor. It's a big house with 10 rooms. There was also some furniture made especially for the Manor house. What are these pieces of furniture? The honest answer is that we don't know all of it for sure. Lundbys history is not easy to sort out. This is just an attempt to show what we do know and how we know it.

So where do we start? A great starting point is all kinds of printed catalogues and ads. They are not totally reliable, but they are a good start.

The Manor house is only featured in two catalogues: the first one being the fall 1981/spring 1982 catalogue. The house is included on the cover, and there is one additional photo of the interior of the house. There's also a close-up of the living room... and that's about it.

The only other trace of the Manor in a catalogue is this photo from the 1982-83 catalogue:

So let's turn our attention to another source: Ads! The most helpful one, without competition, is this one from Jester toys. Not all items here are made especially for Manor, but it shows us some of the items that indeed were. We'll look more closely at this one in just a minute.

Here's another helpful ad:

Other ads I have:

Finally, we can perhaps also find clues on the box.

After looking at the catalogues and the ads, and a few other sources that I'll write more about later, I think we can sort out the following categories:

1. Furniture made exclusively for the Manor range, shown in ads/catalogues.

2. Furniture made exclusively for the Manor range, not shown in ads/catalogues.

3. Furniture sold as Manor, but also sold as regular Lundby furniture.

4. Furniture shown in ads/catalogues for Manor, but sold as regular Lundby furniture.

I've chosen to use the Jester Toys ad as my starting point, simply because it's currently the best source we have for Manor items. I will also use other ads, catalogues and original boxes as sources to get the best overview. I'll include both cropped pictures from the sources as well as photos of the actual furniture.

So let's start to go through the items from the Jester toys ad. Here is the first one:

We have five pieces in this set. The white bedframes are regular ones, but the bedding is not something we've seen before in a twin bed set. It's the same as the Scandinavia double bed, but the single/twin bed is unique to the Manor. Here's a closer look at them:

There is also a piano, a piano stool and a childrens chalkboard. The chalkboard and stool are regular ones shown in catalogues. But the piano is unique. Not the piano itself, but the print on the side of the piano. Here is the Manor piano. There is also another version with more elaborate print on the side and the piano stool, and a plain version of the piano, with no print at all.

So out of the four different pieces in this set, two - the piano and the bedding are unique to the Manor range, and category 1 (see above). The bedframes, piano chair and chalkboard are category 3.

Now let's take a look at the brown bedroom set. This is actually a sneaky one.

The Manor bedroom set has thee pieces: the bed, make-up table and chair. They all have the same flower pattern on the fabric/paper.

We can compare this to the regular brown bedroom from the same time. This one has five parts - a nightstand and a wardrobe is also included. It has another pattern on the fabric, and a round stool instead of a chair.

The sneaky thing? Take a look at this box. It shows the manor pieces, but the bed included is not the Manor bed. I have no idea why Lundby did this.

Conclusion? The flower pattern bedding, make-up table and chair are Manor exclusives. The regular Lundby bedding for this set is Lundby, but sold here as Manor.

Next up: The Lounge set. This would fall in category 4: Furniture shown in ads/catalogues for Manor, but sold as regular Lundby furniture. All of these items were, as far as I can tell, sold as regular Lundby. They do however fit will with all the other Manor furniture.

Here's the sofa and armchair (shown with another table).

Let's turn out attention to the set made for the den. This is an interesting one. It has three main features: the TV-set, the stereo bench with the stereo and speakers, and the swivel chair.

The TV is a regular TV - nothing special there. But the swivel chair is unique to Manor. It's the same chair as the Brasilia set, but with light wood and no footstool. There is also a couch in the same version, but that is not shown in any known ad or catalogue. Since it's similar to the swivel chair, we can assume that it was made for the Manor range.

The stereo bench with the stereo and two speakers are unique to Manor. Not their design, but the colour! The regular set is a lighter wood version. The stereo also has "Manor" written on it - the regular one has "Lundby".

Next up: The Manor dining room set.

The corner cupboard is regular Lundby. The dining room set is a Manor exclusive... at least I thought so until recently. The design of the chairs are used in other sets, but the pink cushion seats and the table are only seen here. Here it is. I have two versions: one with dark pink seats, one with light pink. Are they different sets or is one version just paler due to sun exposure? I don't know.

As I said, I thought this was a Manor exclusive. But then I saw this:

And this:

It is possible that these are two versions. You can see the dark pink seats in the Manor box. But I can't tell if the regular Lundby set has dark or light seats. So we have to leave it there for now.

Let's turn to the next thing from the Jester Toys ad: the dolls.

This is something I know very little of. I've seen the mother doll (Mona) before, but I have no idea if the other three are Manor exclusives or just regular Lundby dolls. Hopefully someone who reads this can help me learn more about them.

Next up: The kitchen.

This is another fascinating branch of the Manor furniture. Let's start with the table and chairs. In the photo the table looks like it's beige with brown table cloth, and the chairs dark red or reddish brown. But the actual set sold has chairs that matches the table.

The kitchen parts are interesting. They are similar to the regular Lundby ones, but have Manor written on them instead of Lundby. Here are a few examples:

There is also a special Lundby Manor bathroom - one of my personal favourites.

Just as many previous parts it's the colour and pattern that are unique - not the shape or form of the bathroom pieces. I've always found quite strange that there was no bathtub made for the Manor. You would expect that the Manor inhabitants would like to take a bath now and then.

The final items from the Jester toy ad are the lights. These are all category 3: Furniture sold as Manor, but also sold as regular Lundby furniture.

Before I let you go, I would like to add a few more pieces of furniture to this article. It's the ones that are shown in the catalogues with the Manor house. They are not Manor exclusives, but they are the right style and time and fits well with the others. Here's a cropped catalogue photo: