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The interior of the Nuremberg House is filled with well-made miniature equipment in remarkably good condition considering that most of the contents are contemporary with the house. It is plain in construction with two bedrooms upstairs, the one on the right also serves as a sitting room. Downstairs are two kitchens, the best kitchen and the working kitchen

Toy Story An exhibition chronicling 300 years of dolls’ houses opens this month at the Museum of Childhood. Halina Pasierbska goes behind the scenes of three of the earliest examples THE EARLIEST-KNOWN BABY HOUSE (meaning ‘small house’ or ‘dolls’ house’, in German, Dockenhaus or Puppenhaus) was made in 1557–8 for Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, as a cabinet of curiosities for his delight. Popularly known as the Munich Baby House, it was an impressive four-storey house, a copy of one of the many elegant ducal residences of the time. It was built and furnished by skilled craftsmen as an art cabinet in the shape of a building and filled with precious items. At that time its purpose was not just a way for rich men to display emblems of status and 30

wealth, the dolls’ houses also had a didactic purpose. Leonie von Wilckens, author of Mansions in Miniature: Four Centuries of Dolls’ Houses (1980), tells us that so great was the demand for instruction in domestic skills and the management of wealthy households that several guides were published after the invention of printing in 1492. These ranged from pattern and embroidery books to volumes on the running of the home. However, since few girls were able to read, the dolls’ house provided an excellent visual aid for servants and young women.

Going Dutch The early Dutch house differs from its German counterpart in two important respects. Firstly, the Dutch were far less interested than the Germans in the didactic possibilities of miniature households; secondly, the tiny households were often set up in cabinets. With its doors closed, the cabinet, usually on a stand, appeared to be nothing more than a piece of furniture, of the type that might contain linen or coins and other such treasures. Expanding trade with Asia and America had seen the rise of an increasingly large class of wealthy


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