Doll Houses by American DollHouses
So you have time to kill or your just dying to learn more about doll houses…. well you’re in luck! I don’ t know about you, but I was a little curious about doll houses and the history behind them. Here you can learn a little (note the word little – I am not kidding) about the history of doll houses and about some of the more famous doll houses of the times.
Before you begin, I recommend a cup of tea or a bit of chocolate, don’t worry I will wait for you to quickly get that now… need a minute more? … no, ready?…okay.
Very simply a doll house is a toy made in miniature of a house. Early doll houses were called “baby houses”. They were meant to be exact replicas of current living standards of the time for the very wealthy. The big surprise was “baby houses” or doll houses were NOT for children but adults. Yes adults. They would often be in locked rooms away from the kids so they couldn’t break them or play with them. This fact surprised me; I had incorrectly assumed this was a play toy for wealthy children, but no, it was for the Daddies. Yes Dads and Moms. In 1558 the Duke of Bavaria commissioned a doll house for his daughter. He was so taken with the doll house it ended up locked in his room and his daughter never got the doll house. This was quite common for the time and doll houses did not become a child’s play toy until centuries later.
For more technical”ish” info on doll houses you can click on Wikipedia for more info.
Now what did the doll houses of the wealth look like? The word “wow” and ”way too much disposable income” could be classified as an understatement. Feel free to peruse the list of my favorites and see for yourself. You can go to the left side bar and click for more info on the following doll houses, which definitely highlight the more extravagant doll houses of their times:
- Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle doll house
- Queen Mary doll house
- The Stromer House
- Titania’s Palace