Printed Doors and Windows
Although most mid-1900s cardboard Christmas "putz" houses had red cellophane windows, many of them had printed paper doors. A few had windows that were printed on bond paper or on an "onionskin" (similar to today's craft-shop "vellum").
While the late "Papa" Ted Althof was in good health, he arranged to have replacements for these printed doors and windows developed so he could make them available to his readers who were restoring old putz houses or building new ones.
Through a special arrangment with Ted's supplier, we are now able to offer the same printed windows and doors Ted offered, professionally printed on 100-year-old paper.
About Pricing - Thankful for this opportunity to carry on Ted's tradition of authenticity and care, we want to continue making these doors and windows available as reasonably as possible. All of the doors and windows on this page cost the same amount; from $1 to $0.40 each, depending on quantity. Please check the Order Form for details, as well as a list of product IDs you can use to keep track as you shop.
And, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Note: To make the graphics big enough to see, we have made all the pictures about the same size. You can click on each picture to see a blowup, but those are about the same size, too. The real printed doors and windows are all different sizes. Please measure the openings on your putz house carefully and pay close attention to the measurements in each description when placing an order.
To Quote "Papa" Ted:
NOTHING brings an old house back to life more than replacing lost or busted doors and windows. Like sewing new eyes back on the old Teddy Bear, the face just comes alive again!
Ebay Sellers: Your houses will get much better prices with doors and windows all intact. Just watch the listings! Ours are virtually indistinguishable from the originals, once installed.
Please note that the actual doors are brighter and more colorful than the photography shows. These are digitally restored versions from originals and appear brand new. You can age them to match a particular house if you wish, but it's just not practical for us to try to get all possible degrees of aging.
The Copyright Notices will not show when the doors and windows are installed. Most often, the borders will not show either. These are all the exact size of the originals, but for some reason the Japanese made their doors and windows larger than the openings and just stuck them in.
Paper Doors
PWD-1:
PreWar door,standard opening -
1"high by 1/2"wide - to - 1 5/16 X 3/4"
(These openings will vary somewhat.)
PWD-1s:
3/4-size version of PWD-1,
fits opening 7/8 X 3/8" - to - 1 1/4 X 9/16"
(These are also often found as "stick-ons" on the candy boxes and small ornament-sized houses.)
| 1920's |
PWD-2:
Standard opening -
1" by 1 /2".- to - 1 5/16 X 3/4"
PWD-2s:
3/4-size version of PWD-2.
Fits opening 7/8 X 3/8" - to - 1 1/4 X 9/16"
PWD-3:
Pre-and PostWar
A very popular door. Note: This door is popular with purz house builders because the higher arch allows them to use a round paper punch to cut the top of the window.
Fits openings: 1" X 1/2" - to - 1 5/16 X 3/4"
PWD-3s:
3/4-size version of PWD-3:
Fits opening 7/8 X 3/8" - to - 1 1/4 X 9/16"
PWD-4:
Though less commonly encountered, this was "Papa" Ted Althof's favorite prewar door, because if you look closely at the thin orange bead around the frame you'll see that it is composed of literally hundreds of tiny four-point "flowers!" PWD-4 fits the standard door opening range of-
1 X 1/2" - to - 1 5/16 X 3/4"
PWD-4s:
3/4 version of PWD-4: -
Fits opening 7/8 X 3/8" - to - 1 1/4 X 9/16"
| 1930's |
PSTD-1:
POSTWAR: Most commonly found door for houses ca. late '40s thru the '50s.
Standard 1" by 1/2" - -to - 1 5/16 X 3/4" opening.
PSTD-1s:
3/4 version of PSTD-1: -
Fits opening 7/8 X 3/8" - to - 1 1/4 X 9/16"
| POSTWAR |
Paper Windows
The "AW" series are found mostly on the PreWar "Hacienda" family - a very large family indeed! The originals were on white bond paper, like the doors above. "AW" stands for "Arched Window."
AW-1:
Popularly found "stained glass" effect window for prewar houses & churches - occasionally used as a door, too.
1 3/8" high X 7/16" wide - to - 1 5/8 X 11/16" opening.
AW-3:
Smaller version of above. Fits openings 1 1/8" high X 1/4" wide - to - 1 7/16" X 1/2"
| 1930's |
AW-2:
Same dimensions as AW-1- different pane color pattern.
AW-4:
Same dimensions as AW-3- different pane color pattern.
The "AW" series of arched windows is now also available on the same semi-translucent vellum as used in the "RY" and "RP" types below. While not strictly original, they nonetheless have a slightly aged look and shine brighter when illuminated from within.
Order: AW-1T, AW-2T, AW-3T, or AW-4T
( "T" stands for "Translucent" )
AW-PW:Seldom seen, but nonetheless authentic "stained glass" pinwheel. About the size of a dime, fits any size round opening up to 3/4" diameter.
Seen in peak of the roof above the front door if seen at all. (In some cases these round peak windows are paned with either plain cellophane or colored foil. If the latter, you can use the foil wrappers from Hershey's Holiday "Kisses.")
Translucent Vellum Series
RYr:
Small round-top gold-on-red window found on a zillion houses both pre and post war.
Openings 3/4" high X 5/16" wide - to - 15/16" X 7/16" .
Printed on special, tough semi-translucent vellum, the effect is perfect! The Japanese would sometimes cut off the lower pair of panes or the round top to fit smaller window openings, or just glue them in whole, so these fit even more than just the obvious applications.
Also shown (above) RYr-2:
PreWar version of RYr, - darker red.... same dimensions.
RYp:
Medium pointed-arch window also found on a wide variety of houses..
1 9/16" high by 9/16" wide outside; 1 3/16' by 3/8" inside.
Printed on the same special translucent vellum paper as RYr.
Also shown: RYp-2:
Darker PreWar version of RYp: - Same dimensions.
The Clock
CLK:
This is the rare "MERRY CHRISTMAS" round CLOCK found on just a very few prewar houses. One customer has even found a use for these as ornament scrap replacements.
15/16" diameter. Printed on white bond paper, as per the original.
Note: Now offering the clock on semi-translucent vellum paper, too. This is not original, but looks somewhat aged and the light shines through more brightly.
We realize how difficult it can be to judge sizes from a photograph, and so are offering our:
"GUIDE-PAK"SAMPLER - #GP-1- with an example of 21types of the 23 cellophane windows and doors we make.
YOU ALSO GET - one each of all of the paper doors and windows - except the "Merry Christmas Clock, the CEL-16, the "AW-PW""pinwheel" and the very large door CEL-DA are not included because these are so very rarely encountered that we have only put very few of each on our master printing sheets.
NOT SHOWN - but NOW ALSO INCLUDED - are one each of the CANDY-BOX GLUE-ON types shown below.
A total of over 50 pieces.
A fullscale black silhouettes sheet with small window sample for measuring cellophanes, and another scale-size color sheet for the paper doors and windows are also part of this kit.
The idea is NOT TO USE these in houses, but rather to keep them as a tool for comparison every time you are repairing an old Christmas house to be sure of ordering exactly what you need with no chance of making a mistake.
Due to our own high costs to produce these better-than-original replacements, we just can't offer them for free, but the price is less than half what the regular prices would add up to.
Sorry, but we must limit these to 1 per customer. Please don't order one of these kits unless you are really serious about fixing up a lot of old houses. This is a special tool for collectors, and they are a time-consuming, losing proposition for me.
GP-1: ... $15.00 per set -
GUIDE SHEETS KIT: GSK-1
An economical alternative to our GUIDE-PAK, this kit consists of the two printed scale-sheets and 3 actual samples. All the windows and doors we offer in paper, vellum and CEL are represented in actual size for measurement purposes.
The first is a color sheet with exact scale representations of all the paper doors and windows.
The second is a sheet of black silhouettes of all the CEL types in actual size to enable measurement for the correct choice.
Finally, one actual sample of our gold-on-red heavy gauge acetate "CELs", one paper door and one vellum type are included to give a clear idea of what they are really like.
PRICE OF GSK-1 KIT: $4.00 -
PLEASE NOTE: If you buy the large Guide-Pak Sampler (GP-1), you do not need the GSK-1 since everything in it is also in the GP-1.
Please contact us if you have any questions. We'd much rather answer questions up-front than try to sort things out after you've gotten the wrong items.
© 2024 Cardboard Putz Houses(tm), All Right Reserved