Dollhouse
The history of today's dollhouses can be traced back about four hundred years to the baby house display cases of Europe, which showed idealized interiors.
Early dollhouses were all handmade, but following the Industrial Revolution and World War II, they were increasingly mass-produced and became more standardized and affordable.
Dollhouses can range from simple boxes stacked together used as rooms for play, to multi-million dollar structures displayed in museums.
Miniature homes, furnished with domestic articles and resident inhabitants, both people and animals, have been made for thousands of years.
These wooden models of servants, furnishings, boats, livestock and pets placed in the Pyramids almost certainly were made for religious purposes.
The earliest known European dollhouses were the baby houses from the 16th century, which consisted of cabinet display cases made up of individual rooms.
The cabinets were built by hand with architectural details, filled with miniature household items and were solely intended for adults.
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, factories began mass producing toys, including dollhouses and miniatures suitable for furnishing them.
The list of important English companies includes Silber & Fleming, Evans & Cartwright, and Lines Brothers (which became Tri-ang).
The TynieToy Company of Providence, Rhode Island, made authentic replicas of American antique houses and furniture in a uniform scale beginning in about 1917.
By the 1950s, the typical dollhouse sold commercially was made of painted sheet metal filled with plastic furniture.
Such houses cost little enough that the great majority of girls from the developed western countries which were not struggling with rebuilding after World War II could own one.
Common brands include Lundby (Sweden), Renwal, Plasco, Marx, Petite Princess, and T. Cohn (all American) and Caroline's Home, Barton, Dol-Toi and Tri-ang (English).
The largest common size for dollhouses is 1:6 which is proportionate for Barbie, Ken, Blythe and other dolls 11-12 inches tall, and furniture and accessories such as Re-Ment.
Children's dollhouses during the 20th century have been made from a variety of materials, including metal (tin litho), fibreboard, plastic, and wood.
Contemporary kit and fully built houses are typically made of plywood or medium-density fiberboard (MDF).
Recognition of the value and enjoyment of collecting vintage and antique dolls houses as a hobby is due largely to the publications of two experts, Vivien Greene (1904-2003) in the UK, and Flora Gill Jacobs (1918-2006) in the US.
Through print publications such as the International Dolls' House News (c 1969-2002) American Miniaturist, and Dolls House and Miniature Scene, collectors around the world shared photos, tips, queries and information; today, websites, blogs, social media, and online forums allow even more collectors to share their hobby.
The dollhouse has working plumbing and lights and is filled with miniature items of the finest and most modern goods of the period.
Writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling contributed special books which were written and bound in scale size.
It required 10 years to build, is 4'6" in height, contains 22 rooms, and was built by Ron McDonnell beginning in 1978 after he failed to secure the return of Titania's Palace to Ireland.
Many contemporary artists made miniatures of their art for the dollhouse, including Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Archipenko, George Bellows, Gaston Lachaise, and Marguerite Zorach.
[28][29] It has been on display since the 1950s at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois[30] and is visited by an estimated 1.5 million people each year.
[31][32] The Astolat Dollhouse Castle was inspired by Alfred Tennyson's poetry about the Lady of the Lake and built between 1974 and 1987 by miniaturist Elaine Diehl.
