Customer Reviews

The Small World of Antique Dolls' Houses: Six Decades of Collecting Mansions, Cottages, Shops, Stables, Theaters, Churches- -Even a Zoo!

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Flora Gill Jacobs shares her collection as though you were able to spend months with her personally. If you ever wished you could get in to the archives, to really and truly speak with the expert, to understand the particular details of other time periods, to hear the adventures of acquisition, this book will will be deeply satisfying. This is no dry catalogue. Anyone with the slightest interest in the architecture and artifacts of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century will be enchanted. Surely those who have the imagination to mentally inhabit a small scale world will appreciate the beautiful photography. Collectors will find the pictures invaluable. The images present the objects as you might view them yourself. First the overall view and then many of the fine details separately. Mrs. Jacobs writing draws the reader close, whether you are a child transported by imagination or an adult collector searching for information. If you are interested enough in this topic to read the reviews, then you certainly will be satisfied with this book.

The first and last word in the history of dolls' houses
A long time coming, and well worth the wait. Brought to us by the author who wrote the very first history of dolls' houses in the US, this comprehensive volume, in the works for the past 6 years, was finally published just before the author's death. An overview of her considerable collection, it is a dip into another world- fascinating, richly illustrated- with words as well as gorgeous color photographs. It is an engaging and indespensible resource for anyone interested in architecture and historic preservation, social history, or the decorative arts, as well as those interested in the history of childhood playthings and miniatures. Weighing in at almost 5 pounds, every ounce is worth every penny!

This book was created by a tireless historian of dollhouses in history. Her passion for these houses was unbounded. I know this book was years in the writing and only months after publication, Flora Gill Jacobs passed away. It is a glorious tome and if you have only one book on dollhouses, this should be it.

An excerpt recently found in the archives, from the Editorial page of The Washington Star, Feb., 1977, written about the author's museum and collection, follows, and to me beautifully captures the appeal of this book.

Sadly, the author, the Museum (and The Washington Star) are now gone...but the book brings the collection to life in the words of its curator, with many gorgeous color photographs on almost every page.

"Seen through small windows"

Why should it be that a crystal chandelier two inches in diameter, illuminating an 18-by-18-inch room, has such candle-power for the imagination?

Some doll houses, of course, at least pretend to be children's playthings, and their appeal is explained in terms of a child's need to have the huge trappings of the adult world scaled down to manageable size. In those little rooms, a child's fancy can restage the dramas of the family giants so they come out right. What is so dismayingly uncontrollable in the large can be dominated when the measure is inches instead of feet.

Something of the same desire to see reality reduced to toy dimensions probably lingers in the grown-ups who collect, or furnish, or simply enjoy looking at, doll houses. Which of us, after all, has not had occasion to wish the universe less vast and intractable?

...Miniaturizing represents the other side of what you might call the Mount Rushmore impulse. Even this does not fully explain the fascination of doll houses, however. The sheer joy of contemplating ingenuity is there as well. A replica of a real fountain that actually sends its ornamental waters into decorative cascades! A little elevator that goes up and down! Mirror frames and carpets and doll clothes that reproduce in faithful detail the artifacts of bygone periods! ..."

and on it goes.

There are many hours of joy indeed to be found between the covers of this book.

The book itself is perfect, a must for every collector of antique dolls' houses. Shipment was extremely well cared for, communication superb. Many thanks, I'll buy again soon, it was a great pleasure!