17th / 18th Century Dolls House Dutch Delft Faience Chinese Gourd Vase Miniature

This rare, circa 1700 earthenware small double-gourd miniature doll's house vase is an exact Dutch copy in both form and decoration of a Kangxi period (1662–1722) Chinese export porcelain miniature vase.

During the late 17th and 18th century, there was a fashion among wealthy Dutch ladies to have models made on the scale of a house. The rooms of these houses were furnished with miniature pieces of porcelain, furniture, paintings, upholstery and all other sorts of objects that would have belonged to the interior of a wealthy home. These 'doll's houses' were very costly not meant for children to play with but instead were proudly displayed for friends and visitors and regarded as extremely luxurious items - counterparts of the cabinets of curiosities that were a fashionable hobby of rich men. Some of these miniature houses cost as much to assemble as an actual full-sized Dutch canal home.

Only a few of these doll's houses have been preserved. One example can be found in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague showing an 18th century room with porcelain miniatures in cupboards and on brackets along the wall.