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 Whiteladies House is on exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum
This Art Deco house was designed by Mrs. Moray Thomas as a record of 1930s contemporary life in miniature. One of the oldest charity houses, it was displayed at The Building Centre in New Bond Street in 1936 for the purpose of raising funds for the Middlesex Hospital.
Categories: art deco, dollhouses
Lin Wee-jen, founder of the Miniature Museum of Taiwan, found on Taiwan Today
The history of dollhouse miniatures has many collectors who wanted to show their treasures to a wider audience than at an occasional social gathering. Some like Narcissa Niblack Thorne chose to endow a permanent exhibition at a suitable museum. Others created their own museum to reach a wider audience. Lin Wen-jen is such a collector.
The Miniature Museum of Taiwan houses the collection of founder Lin Wen-jen. It is privately run and is Asia’s only museum dedicated to miniature artworks. Before retiring as president of Taiwan Fluorescent Lamp Co. Lin traveled extensively on business and got into the habit of shopping for model cars and toy figurines as gifts for children.
Categories: dollhouses, museums, room boxes
Stettheimer Dollhouse Foyer and Glass Elevator found on MonopolThe First Dollhouse
Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks was a favorite watering hole of the New York City rich and famous. In the summer of 1916, the upper-class children had a fund-raising bazaar to benefit local children affected by a polio epidemic. Some pestered their parents for contributions, others pestered the neighbors. Carrie Stettheimer, the youngest of three daughters, got wooden boxes from a grocer and created a dollhouse with found objects and scraps. When the family returned home to their West 58th Street mansion, Carrie began her life-long work – The Stettheimer Dollhouse.
Categories: art deco, dollhouses, Great Dollhouses, Mid Century
Susanna Pinney with her mother’s restoration of a Gothic dolls house made in the 1870s
The miniature now known as Betty Pinney’s House – Bettiscombe was found by a friend who ran an antique shop and sold it to Betty Pinney for ￡5. The house was made in about 1870, of Gothic design, with more than 10 rooms, a roof garden and a lift which can be operated by turning the handle … gently.
Betty Pinney was born in 1907. She studied art and later on designed wallpapers and textiles for the Edinburgh Weavers and then for Sandersons. She designed book covers, posters and also illustrated books. She spent the next 20 years restoring and furnishing the dolls house.
Categories: dollhouses, Great Dollhouses
