Category Archives: Uncategorized

Posted on 02 June, 2019

sara-rothe-cabinet-dollhouse-gemeente-museum

Sara Rothe Cabinet Dollhouse, Gemeente Museum, The Hague

Sara Rothe – The Other Cabinet Dollhouse

On April 2, 1743, Sara Rothe was the high bidder on 3 dollhouses created by Cornelia van der Gon, a leading dollhouse builder of the time. The incentive seems to have been to scavenge these dollhouses for their contents to improve the two cabinet dollhouse Rothe already owned. Apparently, it worked out. The dollhouse in the Franz Hals Museum is amazing. The one at on exhibit at the Gemeente Museum at The Hague equally so.

(more…)

Posted by Susan Downing

Categories: recycled, Uncategorized


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Posted on 21 May, 2019

barbie-bathroom-with-style

A Barbie Bathroom, source unknown

A Dollhouse Bathroom With Style

If you are building a period dollhouse or room box, convention pretty much dictates the decorating choices. There is more latitude if you are recreating an important scene from childhood, for instance, because we have all learned that memory is not a video recorder. Still, the whimsey factor can be limited.

Posted by Susan Downing

Categories: Uncategorized


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Posted on 12 May, 2019

rococo-sitting-room-insel-castle-dollhouse

Rococo In Miniature – Sitting Room in one of the mythical Castles of the Vaunted Island

The Rococo Style

Historical Context

There is no ambiguity about the rococo style. You love it! It’s elegant, witty, playful florid, graceful. Or you might find Rococo grotesque, over-blown, frivolous, a hodge-podge of swirls and bulges. It all began in 1715 when the five-year-old Louis XV ascended to the throne in France, with the Duc d’Orléans appointed as Regent. The Duke had no hopes of becoming King and spent the 8 years of his Regency thoroughly enjoying himself. The aristocracy followed his lead in a passion for beautiful things, and an imagination that often veered to the bizarre. The French upper-class of the mid-18th century is entirely responsible for the outrageous style of art and design known as Rococo.

(more…)

Posted by Patrick Owens

Categories: Uncategorized


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Posted on 24 November, 2018

Blog-bourton-dolls-house-2

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.

Interiors

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-gloustershire

Bourton House, Gloucestershire

Bourton House – Bourton on the Hill

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. 

 

Posted by Susan Downing

Categories: Uncategorized


Print Friendly, PDF & Email