A biography

 

I am busy preparing for the https://miniatura.co.uk/makers/

I first started making dolls’ houses in the late 1980s. At that time, I was a builder restoring old houses and also stripping and restoring old pine furniture.

In search of pine furniture, I went to many antique fairs and found pieces of bamboo furniture to restore. I found an outlet for most of my pieces with an antique dealer in West Hampstead. We became very good friends and it was because of her I started making dolls’ houses. She had been looking for a Georgian style dolls’ house and as she couldn’t find one that she could afford I made one for her using the wood from an old Victorian pine chest of drawers. I continued making further dolls’ houses which were sold in her shop.

A lot of my dolls’ houses have been specially made for children to play with, enjoy and were often made in the style of the house they lived in. On one occasion I made a dolls’ house for a brother and sister to share playing with in the form of a large castle tower. The bottom half was for the girl and had little rooms for small dolls and fairies and the top half with turrets was for the boy and his soldiers.

Another house I made was a row of Victorian cottages and a corner shop on a hill all being just one up one down room’s which several children could play with it at the same time. This stayed with me for a while as my grandchildren loved playing with it. My own dolls’ house is a replica of house in Cricklewood.

About 12 years ago after scaling back on my building and furniture restoration projects I started making 1/12th scale bamboo style furniture replicating some of the pieces I used to restore. Then a couple of years before the pandemic I did my first dolls’ house fair and as they say the rest is history.

 

Tony

My dolls’ houses