Dust off your credit scores and fire up the pre-approved mortgages, because the Bozart Kaleidoscope dollhouse market is ROARING BACK, people. Not that anything's reaching the crazy speculative heights of the pre-2008 doll real estate bubble, of course. But there are three houses on the market at once, which seems like something worth mentioning.
The Kaleidoscope, of course, was a contemporary reimagining of the classic dollhouse, designed by NY artist Laurie Simmons and architect Peter Wheelwright, which hit the market in 2001. It was a lead product in Bozart's line of artist-designed goods, which never really got the scale it needed to stay alive.
But now in 2013, there's a new twist to the Kaleidoscope's story: Simmons is, of course, the mother of actress/writer/filmmaker Lena Dunham. Dunham created Girls for HBO. Her second indie feature was titled--hold on--Tiny Furniture. Running the numbers a bit, Dunham was around 14 when the Kaleidoscope hit the market. If she was slightly too old to have been its target customer, she was almost certainly one of its inspirations. Think about it: playing with this art-filled modernist dollhouse could put your kid on the path to precocious filmmaker stardom.
So whaddawegot?
This house, in Michigan, is in "fair to good" played-in condition, but it all there. And it comes with some furniture and art which, frankly, has never been in short supply in the market.
Meanwhile this Kaleidoscope, a bit of a fixer-upper, is for sale in Connecticut. It's had some remodeling--a pink acrylic wall panel is missing--and will need a bit more, if there's anything to be done about the crack along the underside of the curved roof. [Check it out, this guy in LA's selling two NOS replacement roofs for $9.95 apiece. Never noticed those before. Do you think they'll do the trick?]
One of these two left a comment on the Daddy Types Bozart Kaleidoscope collector freakout thread from 2007.
And caveat emptor, etc., another commenter there, named William, says he has a Kaleidoscope, only this one's still [mostly] in the box. His asking price [$400 or more] and email are in the comments if you want pictures or details.
