Richard Bremner

Miniature dreams

I QUIETLY coveted it for years – a tiny Match box model of a Wolseley 1500 that sat on the mantelpiece of my grandparents’ home. It was, said my grandfather, a onetime dream of his to own one. By the time he’d told me this, the dream had not only moved on, but had expanded – substantially – to a full-size and decidedly avant-garde 1968 Renault 16, a much more sophisticated beast than the Wolseley.

And it dawned on me the other day, as I was admiring some eBay images of a tiny Jaguar F-TYPE, that there aren’t many opportunities to symbolise a dream with an object that fits comfortably within the palm of your hand, or on a mantelpiece. You don’t tend to find miniatures of new kitchens, tropical holiday apartments or self-build houses occupying prized shelf space, for example.