Doll Houses (We Can't Afford)

This made me think of the magical world of Ullabenulla -- The Doll's House of Petronella Oortman. Seventeenth-century doll's houses were not children's toys, they were a hobby for ladies, comparable to the cabinets in which gentlemen kept their collections. This is one of three seventeenth-century doll's houses that have survived intact. It was commissioned by Petronella Oortman, a wealthy Amsterdam lady. The house is remarkable in that all of the components are made exactly to scale. Petronella ordered miniature porcelain objects from China and commissioned furniture makers and artists to decorate the interior. It was extremely costly to create a model house like this. Petronella probably spent between twenty and thirty thousand guilders on her doll's house. In the seventeenth century she would have been able to buy a real house along one of the canals for that price. There are details of each room, have a look at the nursery.

The Cheshire Historical Society.

Puppenhausmuseum.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II doll house.

Bliss Log Cabin.

Georgian House.

Japanese doll palaces are called goten, and the stuff that goes in them.