Let us tell something about ourselves.
and off course about luxury prams
and luxury dolls prams.
We are Nelly and Rob Sloep, parents of 3 daughters and grandparents of 1 grandson. Our daughters used to lie in an "English pram" themselves. Together we really started in 2008 with the hobby collection of old prams. We particularly prefer the English prams. Since the hobby, like almost all hobbies, costs (a lot of) money, we have decided to sell some prams. Incidentally, only after restoration. The restoration of the prams is done by Nelly and Rob does the supporting work including the websites.
English prams.
By "English prams" we mean high prams with large, uneven wheels and preferably a painted body. Our own pram was high and had uneven wheels but no painted body. The pram was decorated with a sort of burgundy red fabric, which Nelly refurbished and dressed in blue for the birth of our 3rd daughter. Although we mainly limit ourselves to prams from the 30s to the 80s of the last century, we also have some prams that are older and newer. These are then special specimens such as a pram with 6 wheels.
Doll prams in English style are even harder to find, we now have a number. Doll prams are being restored or adapted (custom made, more modern). How and what we do partly depends on whether the pram is to be used again by a child or is only for decoration, and of course on the wishes of the new owner.
Old prams:
Vintage pram or retro pram.
At the moment "old prams" can be roughly divided into two categories, namely the vintage and the retro prams.
The vintage prams are real old prams. These can be original, restored (which we prefer to do) or restored and adapted (such as our gothic pram).
Original prams are prams that have not undergone modifications since they left the factory. Often these prams are in poor condition by the test of time.
Restored prams are prams that are returned to their original condition as much as possible, and where possible even with original materials. It goes without saying that this extends the life of the prams. In the age class that we use, this usually means that the prams can be used daily again.
Restored and modified prams are prams in which an old pram is used as a basis and further repaired and adapted as desired. This is definitely not our preference.
The retro prams are new prams made in the old style. Silver Cross and Inglesina, among others, still deliver this type of pram.
Online museum and pram parades.
A hobby is only fun if you can let others enjoy it too. That is why we have started putting a number of prams that we have or had online. If you do this, you naturally also want to provide more data and one thing brings the next. As a result, we now have all sorts of information about the brands and, as far as possible, about the manufacturers in addition to our prams.
We hope that visitors to this website can and want to provide us with more information.
In addition, we walk about 5 times a year with our prams. We have a separate website for this: www.kinderwagenparade.nl
Now and the future.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get prams, parts and data. Partly for this reason we have decided to try to find suppliers for the parts. Often it is a matter of a lot of searching, a lot of patience and a lot of luck to find a suitable one. For parts it is a lot of searching for suppliers. Now we can at least supply tires, belts and mattresses. We can often find a solution for other components as well.
By far the most difficult thing is to get data. In particular, leaflets (with model name or number), stories and photos from the old factories and the history of the brands are very difficult, and in some cases even impossible, to trace. We hope that there are still people who want to support us in this and send it to us. This does not have to be physical! If you want to keep the data yourself, we are already very satisfied with a (Hi-res) scan.
Poppen- & Kinderwagen Museum
We have housed our collection in a foundation and started the Dolls pram & Pram Museum. We have housed most of our own prams here, but now also several donated prams. There are also various prams that have been given on loan to the museum. More about the museum can be found at www.spkm.nl.