I have had a life-long love affair with dollhouse miniatures, and careers in art education and interior design. I hope to combine these life experiences to help other miniature enthusiasts get more out of this wonderful hobby we enjoy, a hobby that often reaches the level of an art form. Susan Downing
The facade of the Nuremberg House on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum
The Nuremberg House was made in 1673 and is the oldest dollhouse on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It is small, measuring approximately 42” high, 36” wide and 18” deep, much smaller than most “puppenhausen” made in Nuremberg during that period.
Categories: dollhouses, Great Dollhouses
This exquisite doll’s house was made in the 1980s by Ellie Yannas after the owners of Bourton House met her at the Chelsea Crafts Fair and challenged her to make a copy of the house as it was in 1985. She took scaled measurements of the house, went back to her studio in South London and made it in three sections according to the construction of the house. The doll’s house took almost seven years to complete.
The interior of the doll’s house replicates the inside of Bourton House and includes the magnificent staircase, trompe l’oeil murals, elegant wood paneled rooms with fireplaces, flagged stone floors, bathrooms and even a fitted kitchen of the late 1980s.
Commenting on the dolls house, the vendor said, ‘This was a whimsical thing to do at the time, life was flourishing and our challenge was to bring the house alive and to record it all with a scale model’.
How about that cute model in the above photo?
Bourton House, Gloucestershire
Bourton House is Grade II Listed and was built in the early 18th century on the foundations of a late 16th-century house. The present house was reputedly commissioned by Edward Popham under the supervision of an unknown Warwick-based architect in about 1708. The two-story house is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof and comprises five bays with dormers and a parapeted stone roof. At each end of the north and south facades, a bay projects, occupying the site of the former Jacobean floor plan. The north and south facades have substantial Ionic pilasters supporting a central pediment with elegant semi-circular carriage steps leading to the main.
Susan Downing, with Patrick Owens
_________________________________________________________________________
I invite you to visit my Etsy Shop where I offer many accessories and pieces of furniture in 1:12 scale.
Categories: dollhouses
Brackett Baby House Facade found at the Museum of London
This Queen Anne style dolls house is on permanent exhibit at the Museum of London. It is believed to have been a gift by Sir Edward Blackett to his wife, Anne, on the birth of their two younger children William and Mary c.1758. The dolls’ house was presented to the museum in 1912 by Ida Frances Blackett, a great-granddaughter of Sir Edward and Lady Anne Blackett. The following is extracted from the Museum website.
Categories: dollhouses, Queen Anne
Charles Hacker Blue Mansard Roof Dollhouse found on James Julia Auctioneers
The Christian Hacker factory was founded in Nuremberg in 1835. Over the years it produced varieties of wooden toys such as dollhouses, miniature room boxes, toy stables, guard houses, kitchens, shops, castles, cars, trains and many others. The toys were very high quality and expensive. The company twice won medals in Paris at the Great Exhibition. The company closed in 1927 after the collapse of the German economy
Categories: dollhouses, Victorian
