Have there been changing fashions in dollhouses and dollhouse play? Most books about the history of miniatures point to Holland of the sixteenth century as the place where a fashion for collecting tiny items of silver or china suddenly arose.  This was apparently centred on very expensive displays by wealthy families, some of whom could display rooms full of plates and vases in both miniature and full size.           At about the same time miniature kitchens were produced to educate young girls in the responsibilities of a household.  On a much more ambitious scale, a few wealthy women had whole villages constructed to represent their own surroundings in miniature.           In the course of the 18th century, dollhouses became popular in England, mainly it seems elaborate individually produced buildings, but also simple portable boxes.  From about 1850 onwards dollhouses were mass produced (though in a number of small workshops rather tha in a few huge factories).  While earlier dollhouses often bore locks high up out of a child's reach, mid-VIctorian houses tended to be for children to play with, and older sisters, aunts, and governesses were a little less inclined to add their stitched contributions.           In the 1920s miniatures came into prominence once more, along with a general approval of childhood innocence like that of Peter Pan or Christopher Robin.  The dolls' house made for Queen Mary of England (still on display at WIndsor Castle) attracted a great deal of attention, and similarly elaborate projects by Sir Nevile WIlkinson, Colleen Moore, and Mrs James Ward Thorne all became well-known.  (See Little Libraries for the role of miniature books in this history.)           The next surge in dollhouse popularity began in the late 1960s, and whatever its cause may have been, two magazines that emerged contributed strongly to the growth of miniature-collecting as an adult hobby.  Nutshell News, produced by Caye McLaren of California, and International Dolls' House News, begun by Felicity Locke in England, still continue under different managements.           The dollhouse miniature hobby surged ahead rapidly in the United States, with clubs like the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts playing a large role in the process.  In Canada things moved a little more slowly, but in 1982 the first Canadian magazine was published and the first coventions were held in Toronto.  Interest rose higher in England in the 1990s, and also in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan.  Over the last few years the internet has allowed miniaturists from all over the globe to exchange information and to have the pleasure of finding others who share their strange fascination with littleness.

A history of dollhouse play or, more exactly, of making and playing with miniature scenes of domestic life Introductory page

Toys in Miniature: Frances Armstrongx.

This is a history only in the most informal sense, and its boundaries are flexible.  Most of the information I have found--based on both artefacts and documents-- dates from about 1600 onwards and comes from English-speaking countries or those of western Europe. Guesses and extrapolations have been made about miniaturization outside those boundaries.

Have children always played these kinds of domestic games in miniature, in all societies? It's been suggested that in any era where tools were used, children had to have their own smaller versions, which might have amused adults by comparison with their own.  Pride and fondness at seeing their offspring imitate themselves in miniature might have added the emotional element in the attraction to miniatures in general. Archeologists often find miniature figures, pots, and utensils which might have fitted in a prehistoric version of a dollhouse, but only occasionally do the circumstances of the find make it likely that these were toys, or that the concept of a toy even existed in its present form.  More often these little objects are believed to have been buried to help the dead in their future lives.  [I hope to add notes about some of these objects.]

Have there been changing fashions in dollhouses and dollhouse play? Most books about the history of miniatures point to Holland of the sixteenth century as the place where a fashion for collecting tiny items of silver or china suddenly arose.  This was apparently centred on very expensive displays by wealthy families, some of whom could display rooms full of plates and vases in both miniature and full size.           At about the same time miniature kitchens were produced to educate young girls in the responsibilities of a household.  On a much more ambitious scale, a few wealthy women had whole villages constructed to represent their own surroundings in miniature.           In the course of the 18th century, dollhouses became popular in England, mainly it seems elaborate individually produced buildings, but also simple portable boxes.  From about 1850 onwards dollhouses were mass produced (though in a number of small workshops rather tha in a few huge factories).  While earlier dollhouses often bore locks high up out of a child's reach, mid-VIctorian houses tended to be for children to play with, and older sisters, aunts, and governesses were a little less inclined to add their stitched contributions.           In the 1920s miniatures came into prominence once more, along with a general approval of childhood innocence like that of Peter Pan or Christopher Robin.  The dolls' house made for Queen Mary of England (still on display at WIndsor Castle) attracted a great deal of attention, and similarly elaborate projects by Sir Nevile WIlkinson, Colleen Moore, and Mrs James Ward Thorne all became well-known.  (See Little Libraries for the role of miniature books in this history.)           The next surge in dollhouse popularity began in the late 1960s, and whatever its cause may have been, two magazines that emerged contributed strongly to the growth of miniature-collecting as an adult hobby.  Nutshell News, produced by Caye McLaren of California, and International Dolls' House News, begun by Felicity Locke in England, still continue under different managements.           The dollhouse miniature hobby surged ahead rapidly in the United States, with clubs like the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts playing a large role in the process.  In Canada things moved a little more slowly, but in 1982 the first Canadian magazine was published and the first coventions were held in Toronto.  Interest rose higher in England in the 1990s, and also in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan.  Over the last few years the internet has allowed miniaturists from all over the globe to exchange information and to have the pleasure of finding others who share their strange fascination with littleness.

What does "dollhouse play" mean? I've used this term to describe the games children play that involve miniature domestic settings, usually a dollhouse or a miniature room, in which the dolls or figures would be under twelve inches high. (A height of six inches is more common, making the setting in the scale of one inch representing one foot.)  I include settings that have no walls around them, but not something as simple as one doll in a bed.

Where does the evidence come from? The paragraphs below are excerpted, with some changes, from my article "The Dollhouse as Ludic Space," Children's Lliterature 24, pages 26-27. Evidence about dollhouse play between 1690 and 1920 is difficult to find. Material evidence--the few actual dollhouses and their furnishings that have survived--can be revealing, although (as with all toys) the survivors are often the failures, playthings that were not enjoyed to the point of extinction.  Direct written evidence is scarce.  Few diaries or letters written by girls have survived, and some of those may have been writte under adult supervision.  The only passages that I have found written by children themselves are one a thank-you letter to Queen Victoria, and a letter written to a children's magazine.  (The name-tags that young Ann Sharp attached to her dollhouse dolls in the 1690s can hardly be called "texts," but they are perhaps more reliable as evidence than the kind of letters mentioned.)  Books of practical or moral instruction are easier to find, though they are more important for the influence they may have had, rather than as reflections of what actually went on.  These books, mostly written before 1850, seldom even try to describe the details of dollhouse play.   Autobiographies are often useful.  Even if the writer has "misremembered" her childhood, the stories that she tells, in print or directly to her offspring, may have a strong influence on the games of the next generation of that particular family.  This is especially true during the period when an old family dollhouse rather than a television-advertised novelty was the centre of play.  In large families, siblings might set up traditions within a single generation.  In the later nineteenth century, when cheaper or home-made dollhouses were more common than the heirloom kind, magazine articles helped to establish a tradition of play, often describing dollhouses and their owners of earlier generations, from memory or from research.  Since games of dollhouse play are themselves fictions, it is hard to draw a firm line between autobiographical accounts and declared "fiction."  The magazine articles I have just mentioned, for instance, include many accounts of the dolls and dollhouses of Queen Victoria and her children and grandchildren, so Frances Hodgson Burnett can credibly introduce one such grandchild as a character in Racketty-Packetty House.  The dollhouse in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Two Bad Mice is well-known to be based on the one made by her fiancé Frederick Warne for his niece (Taylor 115).  When several members of one family are writers, their stories may overlap in ways that confirm elements of factual accuracy: Margaret Gatty and her daughter Juliana Horatia Ewing, for instance, in Aunt Sally's Life and The Land of Lost Toys respectively, write about toys that have passed through several generations; "Aunt Sally" and Ewing's "the Dowager" appear to be the same doll.  Many such stories are framed ambiguously so that they can be read as fact or as fiction.

Having been fascinated by miniatures all my life, I'm well aware that adults possibly play more often and more enthusiasticallly with dollhouses than children do.  On this page, though, I'm concentrating on children's dollhouse play, because there really is very little evidence about it.  A child can block her parents' view of what is happening inside the dollhouse, and keep her thoughts completely private; very few have talked later in life about the dollhouse games they played.. For other aspects of the fascination of littleness, see the buttons at the bottom of this page.

This qualifies as a dollhouse, in my opinion.

For more about the history of doll play, click on the buttons below.  The middle three will take you to more excerpts from my article quoted above.

This page was last updated on: April 18, 2005