Dutch dollhouse link to US obsession with house and home!
June 26th, 2012A Dutch tradition dating back to the 1600s is being credited with starting collectors off on the dollhouse trail!
Their passion for the grown-up toys of lavish dollhouses could also have laid the trail towards the US obsession with house and home, according to the Santa Rosa-based Press Democrat in California.
Their other passion was the “cabinet of wonder” displaying souvenirs and keepsakes from the merchants’ travels around the globe.
These would be displayed alongside the dollhouses in their living rooms.
The dollhouses were “not playthings but miniature memorials, records of dearly beloved objects,” according to Witold Rybczynski, author of “Home: A Short History of an Idea”.
Cabinets for souvenirs – or dollhouses full of miniatures?
Find out more in The Press Democrat.
