PLAYING HOUSE

Jo Caird peeks into the miniature worlds of dolls' houses through history

- Jo Caird

There’s something magical about dolls’ houses. The sense of wonder that comes from peeking into a miniature world is most keenly felt in childhood, but it’s a fascination that persists long after our playing days are over. And the more elaborate the dolls’ house, the more enjoyable the experience, as we marvel at intricate details and the sheer effort that must have gone into the creation of so many tiny, perfectly-formed objects.

Take for example the red velvet bedroom of the Nostell dolls’ house, a nearly 300-year-old miniature version of the real Nostell—the National Trust property in West Yorkshire that inspired it. The silk velvet bed curtains are as luxurious and detailed as those found on real-sized beds at the time (specifically, the state bed in Nostell’s Crimson Room), the beautifully carved chest of drawers is made from walnut, and the portraits on the wall are framed with gold-embossed paper to imitate giltwood.

Nostell curator Simon McCormack estimates that the dolls’ house would have cost around £20,000 in today’s money—with such high standards of craftsmanship throughout the two-meter tall artifact, it’s not hard to see why.

One of the rarest dolls’ houses in the UK, the Nostell mini-mansion has been painstakingly conserved and is now the centrepiece of a new permanent exhibition at Nostell that allows visitors to take a closer look at the dolls’ house than has ever been possible before.

DOLLS’ HOUSES ORIGINATED IN 16th-century Germany and the art form hadn't changed very much by the time the Winn family commissioned this one in 1735. Dolls’ houses—or baby houses as they were known—were intended mainly to be admired. The preserve of the rich, they were a way of showing off one’s wealth.