Made in Holland

Most of the Dutch dollhouses and miniature shops I collect are labelled "OKWA" (short for Okkerse Waddinxveen) or "SIO" (short for Speelgoed Industrie Overijssel).

The OKWA factory was owned by the family Okkerse from the village Waddinxveen in Zuid-Holland (Dutch province). The factory was founded in 1901 and this factory was the first Dutch toy factory to produce dollhouses and miniature shops. In the 1930s they started making miniature shops and in the 1950s they started the production of dollhouses. In the second half of the 1970s the OKWA factory closed down.

The SIO factory was founded just before the Second World War in a village called Vroomshoop in Overijssel (Dutch province). Most of the SIO miniature shops were made during the 1950s. The SIO dollhouses however, date mostly from the 1970s. Sometime halfway during the 1980s the factory closed down. Most of the Dutch factory made dollhouses can be identified by the use of colourfully printed hardboard combined with plastic accessories (alas often broken or missing). Except for the dollhouses and miniature shops the factories also made all kinds of other wooden toys. You can find more about the shops on the page toy shops. Besides the two factories mentioned above there was at least one other toy factory that made dollhouses and roomboxes. Of this factory I only know the name: "VIWI". The factory was located in Rotterdam.

Miniature furniture

Some wooden furniture for dollhouses was made in the Netherlands. The most famous amongst collectors is the furniture made by "ADO" in the 1920s. ADO made miniature furniture and also a room to contain this furniture in Art Deco style, inspired by the famous Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld. In the town Zaandam in the late 1930s the "HOZA" firm also made miniature furniture in Art Deco style. In the 1940s, during and after World War II this firm made tiny furniture from wood left over from other projects.

Just after World War II there was a firm in Amsterdam called "Figura". It made modern miniature furniture as well as miniature furniture in a peasant style called "Hindeloopen", furniture painted with flowers, in Hindeloopen (a small Dutch town) tradition. I have seen and touched the ADO furniture (I do not have it myself, because it is rare and very expensive). The HOZA Art Deco furniture I only know from pictures. I have collected some of the so called "Hindelooper" dollhouse furniture.

There is very little known about the history of the Dutch toy industry: there are hardly any books about it either. I would like to get in touch with people who know more about Dutch toy factories.

The house at the top right is an OKWA house from 1973. Old toy catalogues offer very much important information! The house is furnished with plastic furniture. See also the plastics page.

More about OKWA:

In 2003 a great deal OKWA toys and other wooden toys made in Waddinxveen could be seen in the Westfries Museum (Hoorn, the Netherlands) in the exhibition "Speelgoed uit de polder, 200 jaar houten speelgoed uit Waddinxveen" / "Toys from the polder, 200 years of wooden toys from Waddinxveen" . If you want to know more about this exhibition you can look at the English version of the press communication.