Rugs, Rugs, Rugs

So, here's a question I could really use some help answering... You know how some of the furniture sets have rug stickers (lithos) pictured on the front of their boxes?  Well, what I'm trying to figure out is, which of the furniture sets came with rug lithos?

Here's what information I have so far...

Of the eight Precious Places furniture sets, five of them have rugs pictured with the furniture on the front of their boxes.  These sets are the Bedroom, Bathroom, Baby's Nursery, Living Room and Canopy Bedroom.  The website ThisOldToy.com (TOT) includes the rug sticker in the parts list for each of these sets, but says about the lithos: "This rug is pictured in the Fisher-Price dealer catalogue, but we are not sure if it was ever included in the sets sold in stores."

When I first began collecting PP several years ago (and was addicted to reading the TOT parts lists), I thought that I ought to investigate whether there were any rug stickers out there, so that I could add them to my collection if they existed.  There seemed to be a pretty simple way to answer the question, i.e. just buy an unopened furniture set and see if there was a rug litho in the box.  So that's what I did.  I found a fairly inexpensive, never-been-opened Living Room furniture set on eBay, bought it, and with great anticipation, I opened it... only to discover that there was no rug sticker in the box.

"Case closed," I thought, "Furniture sets did not come with rug lithos." 

And so for a couple of years, I had no reason to look any further into the mystery of the rug lithos.

Then one fateful day last August, I noticed this picture on a completed eBay listing:

 

Unfortunately, I didn't see the listing until after it was over, so I didn't get a chance to bid on this item, but as the picture clearly shows, there was an octagonal rug included with the Living Room furniture.  I contacted the seller who told me that a) it was indeed a rug sticker, b) she believed it originally came with the Living Room set and c) it could not possibly have come with the Mansion, since these were her childhood toys and she'd never owned the Mansion.

This got me on the hunt for rug lithos and what do you know, they are rare, but some of them can be found.  So far, I've got two in my collection, those from the Baby's Nursery and Canopy Bedroom sets.

Baby's Nursery Rug:

Canopy Bedroom Rug:

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "That Canopy Bedroom rug sure looks familiar."  And you'd be right.  It is the same rug litho that was included with the Mansion set itself.  But I have four reasons to be fairly certain that the one I have originally came with the Canopy Bedroom set.  

1) It was sold in an eBay auction with the Canopy Bedroom furniture

2) It is just the rug sticker by itself and as far as I know the Mansion lithos always came on a large sheet like this:

3) I later saw another Canopy Bedroom set listed with the same rug litho.

4) Most importantly, the rug litho has the numbers 5177 on the edge and that is the Fisher Price item number for the PP Canopy Bedroom set.

So put it all together and it means that I am nearly 100% positive that the Living Room, the Baby's Nursery and the Canopy Bedroom each have a rug litho that was included with some (but not all) sets sold in stores.  

Why wasn't a rug litho sold with every furniture set?  I really have no good answer to that question.  It is possible that only sets produced in 1990 had a rug litho.  Or maybe only sets sold in a certain location (the United States, Canada or Europe for example) had rugs.  I have so little information to go on, it's quite likely that we will never know the answer to the 'why' question.

One question I am still hoping to answer (and here's where I could really use your help) is...

Did the Bathroom and/or Bedroom sets also come with rug lithos?

I have not as of this moment, been successful in locating a rug litho (or picture of one) for the Bathroom or Bedroom sets.  It would be really helpful to me if anyone out there has more information.  Do you have any new in the box furniture sets?  If so, did they come with rug stickers (lithos)?  

I'd really love to get as much information as possible about these stickers so that we can all know what to look for when we're bidding on furniture sets!  Post your comments, please!!!!

Furniture Set Key Lithos

Before I get into a discussion of the furniture set key lithos, here's a little background on the sets themselves: of the eight Precious Places furniture sets, four of them were manufactured for the course of the two years the line was in production. These are the Kitchen, Living Room, Bathroom and Baby's Nursery sets. Two sets were manufactured only in 1989: the Dining Room (but see my earlier post) and the Bedroom. The remaining two sets were manufactured only in 1990: the Canopy Bedroom and the Playroom.

I think this background is important for understanding the key litho situation of the furniture sets. You see, thisoldtoy.com (TOT) has each PP set listed with a description of the key litho. For the Kitchen, Living Room and Bedroom is says that the key "has no litho". However, for the Bathroom, Baby's Nursery and Playroom it says "unknown description of litho". I would like to suggest that the Bathroom and the Baby's Nursery sets should also be listed as "has no litho" and here's why...

I believe that for whatever reason only furniture sets that were put into production in 1990 (Canopy Bedroom & Playroom) have key lithos. I agree with TOT that the Canopy Bedroom key looks like this:



and I would like to propose that the following key is the Playroom key, since the balloon motif matches the litho on the Playroom puppet show:



Other than these two keys, I have seen no other lithos that could possibly belong to the Bathroom or Baby's Nursery furniture sets, so unless I am wrong about the balloon key belonging to the Playroom or if there are lithos out there I've never seen, I will continue to assert that the Bathroom and Baby's Nursery (along with the Kitchen, Living Room and Bedroom) never came with lithos for their respective keys.

Have you ever seen any lithos that you don't know what sets to which they belong? Do you have a key with a litho for any of the furniture sets besides the Canopy Bedroom and Playroom? As always, I would love to hear about it so I can complete my Precious Places collection!