Fab Mums » Magnificent Dolls’ House Collection at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green

Fabric upcycle: make a chicken door stop

September 11, 2014 – 5:55 am | No Comment

To make this chicken door stop I used the template kindly offered by Bake and Sew. I adjusted the sizes in mine to make it a little larger by adding 4 cm on each …

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Magnificent Dolls’ House Collection at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green

Submitted by Maria on October 13, 2009 – 2:52 amNo Comment

three-devonshire-villas-dolls-house-open

The Doll’s House collection at the Museum of Childhood is one of the largest British Collections not in private hands. The earliest houses were built by carpenters who were commissioned to make exact miniatures of existing houses of the time. This is before toy making and these houses were actually built for the lady of the house who amused herself decorating, furnishing and often restoring it making it her hobby. It wasn’t unusual for guests to bring gifts such as little teapots or other objects for the doll’s house when visiting the hostess. The fine details of each room, from the wall paper to the furniture is a priceless piece of history as you can really tell a lot about the household of wealthy families of the historical period they belong to from observing the organisation of the rooms and the details. The Museum’s oldest house is the Nuremberg House dating back as early as 1673, there are a few doll’s houses from the 18^th century including the Tate Baby House (1760) and a larger number from the 19^th century. It is not until the early 1900s’ that doll’s houses were beginning to be seen as toys as we know them today when toy manufacturers rather than commissioned carpenters started building them. However the fine craftsmanship and details that went into the construction of these doll’s houses kept it a privilege of wealthy children. An example of these is the Princess’ House built in the 1930s’ by the company Lines Bros. of Merton, Surrey whose trademark was Tri-ang for Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth). the-princess-house1

I have selected a few photos of Mrs Hibberd’s dolls’ house which was built in 1800 and the fine details of the interior are amongst my favourite of the museum’s collection. mrs-hibberds-dolls-house-kitchen mrs-hibberts-dolls-house-lounge