Doll Houses

 

Here are some photos of the Kane County doll show last Sunday, featuring doll houses.  

These

are not from they show.  Only pic second row far right is.  The others are 

mine.

Dutch Baby Houses derived from 17^th century cabinets of curiosities.  Baby was the operative word for “doll”, though the word itself meant a silly woman, similar to “moll” for a lady of the evening.  There is also Doll Tearsheet, a rather dense girl, who is a Shakespeare character.  More on “doll” origins later.

 

A famous doll house is Ann Sharp’s baby house, still residing with its original family.  Ann was the god daughter of Queen Anne, namesake for many dolls of the era.  The house was a gift from the Queen.

 

Doll houses are also ancestors of the elaborate Crèches that were popular in many European countries, including Italy, Spain, France, and Germany.  They have many names, but all expanded from the simple Bethlehem crèche to entire towns with shops, houses, animals, and people.

 

In England, Henry VIII began the royal collection of miniatures, extant to this day.  Queen Mary and her doll house became famous, and there are many other , historic English houses.  Vivian Greene, wife of Graham Greene [who called Shirley Temple a midget], was an enthusiastic collector and authority on doll houses.  She was a good friend of my friend, author Mary Hillier.  Another wonderful expert on minis and doll houses was the late Flora Gill Jacobs.

 

Miniature dolls, dishes and household items have been found in ancient and medieval graves in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Europe.  Tiny rooms or houses probably housed them.  Books on toys and their history often discuss them.  See Fraser, Jaffe, Cunliffe and others.  There are more sources in my book, A Bibliography of Dolls, usually free on Kindle Unlimited.

 

We heard wonderful talks by Alicia Carver and Christopher Aleman on Sunday.  Here are some of the houses that were on display.