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Collectible or Child’s Toy: Factors to Consider When Choosing a Dollhouse Kit
Dollhouse kits have been around since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and their popularity has continued unabated ever since. There are lots of different kinds of dollhouse kits to choose from depending on your level of expertise, whether the dollhouse will be for a child or be an adult collectible.
Kit construction
If you are making a kit for a child, particularly a younger child you will want a kit that is made of sturdy material, and easily put together. Older children, particularly if they tend to be careful with collectible items, can enjoy more elaborate dollhouses and will likely...
Tara’s Palace Museum of Childhood
Located at the famous Powerscourt House in Enniskerry County, Wicklow, Ireland the Tara’s Palace Museum of Childhood contains Ireland’s largest period dollhouse in addition to other miniatures and antique toys. The centerpiece of the Museum is the dollhouse known as Tara’s Palace.
Tara’s Palace came into being when Ireland was unable to purchase the famous Titania’s Palace antique dollhouse which was built by Irish craftsmen. Titania’s Palace was eventually bought by Lego and made its way to Denmark where it now resides. A movement started to create a dollhouse that would remain in Ireland...
Titania’s Palace: A Dollhouse For a Fairy Queen
The story goes that Sir Neville Wilkinson, a British officer who served in the Second Boer War and the First World War, artist and dollhouse designer, was out in the garden of his home in 1907, when his three year old daughter Guendolen said she saw fairy run across the grass. His daughter’s vision was the inspiration for Sir Neville’s miniature palace to house Titania, Queen of the Fairies, along with Oberon, her Consort, and the Princesses Iris, Daphne, Pearl and Princes Noel and Zephyr.
The palace was handcrafted under the...
A Dollhouse Based on a Comic Strip: the Moomin Dollhouse
In Sweden, the Moomins are popular cartoon and story characters that look like trolls with long snouts with a resemblance to a hippopotamus and who live deep in the forests of Finland. The Moomins are the creation of author Tove Jansson, who wrote a variety of picture books about the life of these forest characters. The popularity of the characters has led to different television shows, movies, and even a theme park. In addition, the characters interested the Finnish graphic artist and educator, Tuulikki Pietila, who created a series of shadow boxes forming a dollhouse for a family of Moomins.
...A Dollhouse Fit For a Queen: Queen Mary’s Dollhouse