A village that started with seven shops
Department 56 introduced Dickens' Village in 1984, opening with a small set of hand-painted, lighted porcelain shops and a group of carolers. The idea was simple and it worked: rebuild the London of Charles Dickens — the gas lamps, coaching inns, solicitors' offices, and crowded Christmas streets of A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and his other novels — at a scale a family could put on a mantel.
Four decades on, the early pieces are the ones collectors hunt. They were made in smaller runs, most are long retired, and a complete early building — original box, Styrofoam, paperwork, and a working light — is harder to find every year. That is exactly the corner of the Village we stock.
What to check before you buy any Dickens' Village piece
1. The item number. Every building carries a Department 56 item number, usually on the underside and on the box. It identifies the piece exactly. If a listing does not give it, ask.
2. The edition and year. Some pieces note an edition — a first edition or a numbered annual edition — and that can matter more than age alone. Our Crown & Cricket Inn, for example, is a 1992 first edition; The Grapes Inn is a 1996 fifth edition.
3. The box and Styrofoam. The original box with its fitted Styrofoam is not packaging trivia. It is how these porcelain buildings survive storage and shipping, and complete-in-box pieces hold their appeal far better than loose ones.
4. The light. Most buildings are lighted pieces. A working light cord should be stated plainly in the listing — and if a cord has been replaced with a new one, that should be stated too, as we do with our Knottinghill Church.
5. Condition, honestly described. Look for chips, cracks, repairs, and paint loss in close-up photographs, not just a wide shot. Vintage pieces can show light wear; what matters is that the listing shows it and says it.
Starting a display that looks like a village, not a shelf
- Anchor with one larger piece. An inn or a landmark gives the scene its center. A church or an inn at one end, shops in the middle, a cottage at the other end reads as a street.
- Mix trades, not just houses. A printer, a counting house, and a solicitor's office next to cottages is what makes Dickens' Village feel lived in — Dickens wrote about working London, not just pretty cottages.
- Add accessories last. Small pieces such as our 1996 Christmas Bells special-event accessory fill the gaps between buildings and make a small display feel finished.
- Light it warm. These buildings were designed to glow. One lit street at dusk does more than a room full of unlit porcelain.
Caring for your pieces
Store each building in its original Styrofoam and box, upright, in a dry place. Wrap cords separately so they do not rub the paint. Handle by the base, never by a chimney or sign — those are the first things to chip, on any maker's village.
Dickens' Village pieces in stock now
Every piece below is one of a kind — when it sells, it is gone. All are photographed piece by piece in our listings, with condition stated plainly.
- M. Fezziwig Warehouse — 1986 — $32
- Scrooge & Marley Counting House — 1986 — $38
- White Horse Bakery — 1988 — $42
- Mr. Wickfield Solicitor — 1989 — $38
- Knottinghill Church — 1989, new light cord & bulb — $45
- Flat of Ebenezer Scrooge — 1989 — $42
- Tutbury Printer — 1990 — $28
- Nephew Fred's Flat — 1991 — $29
- Crown & Cricket Inn — 1992 First Edition — $65
- Browning Cottage — 1994 — $38
- Whittlesbourne Church — 1994 — $58
- Sir John Falstaff Inn — 1995 — $78
- The Grapes Inn — 1996, 5th Edition — $78
- Butter Tub Barn — 1996 — $45
- Christmas Bells accessory — 1996 Special Event Piece — $32
Related, from the Historical Landmark Series: Tower of London 5-piece set — 1997 — $135
Browse the full seasonal collection: Vintage for the Holidays
A note from the shop
Another's Treasures 4 U is an online vintage shop in Palm Harbor, Pinellas County, Florida. Our pieces come from Florida estates, selected by the same local team behind Another's Treasures Estate Buyouts. We photograph every piece ourselves and describe what we see — no stock photos, no surprises.