by Henry Wu
“There stood the doll’s house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid chimneys, glued on the roof, were painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slab of toffee"f (Katherine Mansfield, The Doll’s House). From her minute description, a doll’s house seems to take form piece by piece in front of us. But, have you ever wanted to see a real doll’s house? Now, here in Taipei, the first museum of miniatures in Asia is ready to fulfill your wish and blow your mind. Just picture this scene: within a lunchbox-sized bedroom, a wooden bed covered with a golden silk quilt, two toothpick-high lamps on either side, casting light on the finger-size paintings on the wall, luxurious carpet on the floor, and many more delicate pieces of furniture gracing the room. And this is only one of hundreds in this museum’s extensive collection. The art of making miniatures originated in 17th Century Germany. They were made for children as gifts. Only the gentry could afford them. With the progress in quality and manufacturing technologies, they became collectable. A fine miniature work may take months or years to complete, and is valued for its surprising depiction of the object, such as an architectural style, the interior building, a piece of furniture. Besides sharing the appearance and structure of the archetype, the classic miniatures are assembled with the same materials as the original. The main exhibits in the museum are dollhouses and roomboxes. The dollhouse, as its name suggests, is a scaled-down representation of an entire building; and the roombox is a close-up profile of a single room or place in a suitcase-sized box. That is why we can see more precise and explicit furnishing in a small roombox. The original buildings are mainly Western ones. Hence, you can find an 18th Century Tudor villa in England, a splendid mansion in L.A., and other remarkable structures of Western culture, such as a water mill, and a ferris wheel. Of course, many further wonders await your visit. Come anytime, and be a guest of Thumbelina! The Museum of Minatures 袖珍世界博物館 Address: No. 30, Lane 25, Tung-shan Rd., Tienmu, Taipei 天母區東山路25巷30號 a
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May 2024
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