The Story of Dolls Houses
Friday, January 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Collecting dolls houses, particularly the plastic accessories for Barbie or Cindy, is a relatively recent phenomenon.Just how long these injection moulded products will last is anyone’s guess, however, recreating houses and their contents is a hobby that’s been around for centuries in one form or another.
The earliest recorded dolls house - an exquisitely detailed replica of his own fully furnished residence - was owned by Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, in the mid 1500s. Following his example, many other wealthy people began to commission fine miniature pieces made by expert craftsmen.These were not children’s playthings but were intended as conspicuous displays of wealth and social position.
The craze for dolls houses grew throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and gradually these miniature creations began to be considered appropriate for the children of the wealthy. These were not toys though!Rather they were used as visual aids to educate young girls about the domestic management duties that any young woman would be expected to perform when she became mistress of her own household. It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that the concept of “childhood” was really developed and the dolls house became more of a plaything. They were still the product of individual, painstaking, craftsmanship however and were restricted to the children of the middle and upper classes.No self respecting nursery was considered complete without one.
The Victorian age saw the beginning of industrial mass production and it was this development that changed the dolls house into a genuine child’s toy.The major innovator in this, and many other types of mass produced toy, was Germany, whose factories exported dolls houses all over the world.
But the adult upper class fascination with reflecting their lifestyle in miniature persisted.Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, had a strong interest in dolls houses. n the early 1920’s one of the foremost architects of the day, Sir Edwin Lutyens, was commissioned to design and build a dolls house for the queen’s personal pleasure. All the miniature items for Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House were made by the finest craftsmen available and their work which can still be seen on display in Windsor Castle.
Today the mass production of dolls houses for fashion dolls (and even woodland creatures!) as toys for kids runs parallel to the hobby of miniature collecting by adults. Arguably, diorama sets for model figures – be they model soldiers or Sci-Fi characters – are dolls houses too in spirit at least.There are a growing number of specialist shops, miniatures fairs and dolls house publications to cater for adult enthusiasts. Some enjoy making the models, while others collect craftsman-made pieces. The aim is to achieve accurate detail to capture the right mood, character and period, making a hobby into a (very lucrative!) art form.
