Speaker Review: A history of Dolls houses

Sue noted that dolls houses, collecting and making, was the second fastest growing hobby in the world. A hobby that dates back to the Egyptians who are known to have had dolls, although there is no evidence of dolls houses (or pyramids!).

Sue noted that there are many different styles of houses, not just the type of house they represent but also how they are built and furnished. The modern era of collecting dolls houses started in Holland and Germany in the 16th Century and was an expensive hobby that usually only women participated in. This is partly due to the fact that at this period in history women were pregnant for much of their early adulthood.

One of the early styles of houses was a “Cabinet House”, literally a normal cabinet altered to form a basic house. However they did often represent a real house. For example many real and dolls houses had two kitchens. Sue noted that kitchens were made available separately and were often used as teaching aids.

The size/scale of the dolls houses was, in the early years, chosen by the maker and thus few early houses and their contents were at the same scale. A standard scale doesn’t arrive until the 1900’s when dolls houses became popular and by the 1970’s were cheap enough for the masses to purchase.