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Dolls House History

Please do not hold us to the exact dates even our historians are in some cases not sure.

A dolls house is a house made in miniature and the first one made was in Germany in 1558

For thousands of years miniature homes have been made and furnished with people, furniture, animals and household items.
Dating back to the egyptian tombs nearly five thousand years ago remains of pottery and wooden dolls have been found and they are believed to be for religious purposes not as toys.
The earliest dolls houses date back to the Sixteenth Century where cabinets were made to display the rooms.
The cabinets were built with extreme detail and were soley for the adults of the house, not to be touched by the children. These cabinets of course could only be afforded by the wealthy.

Smaller more affordable houses appeared in the 1700s but were still made with each one being unique and custom built for the customer. The Industrial Revolution changed all of this and factories began to mass produce toys of which the dolls house and miniatures were a part of this.
Germany was the producer of the most prized miniatures and houses right up until the First World War.
Germanys involvement in the war slowed down the export of these items and new countries started there own manufacturing. At this stage America became a large producer of dolls houses.

The houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and even the early nineteenth had no uniform scales to them which we are guided today.
These were classed as toys and manufacturers made lines of different size furniture.
Childrens toy houses for the twentieth and twenty first century were 1:18 scale and the most common names Lundy, Barton and Triang. Adult collectors today are a standard 1:12 scale

After the end of World War II dollshouse were mass produced on a larger scale in factories.
The typical dolls house of the 1950s was made of painted sheet metal and then filled with plastic furniture and miniatures.
Lots of young girls benefited from this with the cost being low enough for the families to afford.

Now we can purchase dolls houses in various different form.
There are lots of different kits in all types of designs, ready built houses and the custom built houses built to your own design. As well as the different types of houses there is also a huge variety of miniature pieces which can be used to fill your miniatures homes.
You can also visit the dolls house shows and fairs around the country and buy from local artisans which produce unique products. Also we have the internet with a host of sites all concentrating on dolls houses and miniatures.

Dolls houses today are classed as a hobby and everything that you can find for your own home can be found in miniature to complete your house.
There is also the serious collector whom will only collect items which are either unique or a one off specially made for there house. These items can be passed down to other family members.