Small Places of Big Stories: Miniature Doll Houses

Miniature dollhouses, which first appeared in the late 16th century, are mostly associated with children today and are seen as 'toys', but throughout history they have been productions that have provided adults with the opportunity to present their power, wealth, social prestige and pleasure in the world to the outside world on the one hand, and to discover 'childhood' and escape to an imaginary world on the other. With the spread of cheap production methods and mass production opportunities in the 19th century, dollhouses have become standardized, have lost their subjective values ​​'speaking on behalf of their owners' and have become anonymous objects. In this context, the study first aims to make a theoretical discussion on miniature and to show that miniatures are not simply reduced copies of large objects. The study then tries to understand the historical and cultural environment of the period when dollhouses emerged through scientific and artistic productions in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Starting from the first dollhouses built in this period when the miniature perspective was seen as a value in itself, the study aims to document important dollhouses produced until today and to reveal the big stories these small spaces contain. When we look back, apart from the antique value they carry, these dollhouses are important not only for understanding the historical realities of the period in which they were built, daily life culture, social roles, domestic practices, art, interior and fashion design, but also for touching the inner world of the collector and showing the more internal characteristics of the interior beyond objective features.