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House of Broel: Antebellum House of Weddings and Dollhouses
The House of Broel draws visitors, prospective brides and grooms, and dollhouse aficionados to its doors located in the historic garden district of New Orleans, Louisiana. The perfectly preserved Victorian home was originally built in the 1850’s by George Washington Squires and then was added on to by William Renaud in 1884 to provide more open space on the ground floor. The location is the perfect place for a wedding specialist, an award winning fashion designer, author, interfaith minister, and dollhouse collector Bonnie Broel to create a museum and wedding site. The first floor of the home is open for...
Dollhouse Kits: How to Choose For a Special Child
Our daughter or grandchild or other significant child in your life wants a dollhouse. You have decided to use dollhouse kits to create a masterpiece of a dollhouse for her. So where do you start? What are the criteria for choosing the best dollhouse kit? Here is a simple guide to dollhouse scales and types of dollhouses that are available for your purchase. The one you choose should be based on the age of your child, the types of dolls that your child will be using in the dollhouse, the size of the room it is going into and aesthetics.
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Amy Mile’s Dollhouse
One of the best things about antique dollhouses is that they allow us to see what real houses looked like during the time period of a dollhouse. There are many instances when regular items have not survived and the only way we know about them is to see them in miniature in a historical dollhouse.
Petronella Oortman
In the seventeenth century in Europe, dollhouses in the homes of the well to do were actually pieces of furniture. The dollhouse would be part of a cupboard or armoire. Most had legs with cabinet doors to open to the dollhouse interior. These dollhouse cupboards were not for children, they were constructed for the woman of the home as part of an elegant home décor. Men had similar cabinets for their collections of objects d’art.
One of the most famous dollhouses and one that has survived through the ages was commissioned...
German Nuremberg Dockenhaus
Dollhouses built in the 17th century generally served two purposes. One a miniature dollhouse was a sign of wealth and would sit in the main room of a home where visitors would be received. A dollhouse’s second purpose would be as a visual for the children in the home so they could learn the skills they would need to run a household. Dollhouses built in this period for wealthy adults would have included items made by local craftsmen and the miniature furniture and household items would have been greatly prized. Probably several different guild of specialist craftsmen were commissioned in...