Doll Furniture: Art or Toys?

Is a piece of doll furniture a toy or a work of art? While "toy" may be the definitive answer in the case of modern, kid-friendly baby doll furniture, the art or toy question is a complex dichotomy that dates back to the creation of the oldest known European dollhouse in the mid-16th century.

A Palace Fit for…? Miniature replicas of furniture and domestic articles are prominent within ancient human history, perhaps most notably within the tombs of ancient Egypt, where they symbolized objects that the deceased would need in the afterlife. Miniature figures known as shabti - servants who'd perform manual labor in the afterlife on the deceased's behalf - eventually came to be buried in shabti boxes, mini-coffins decorated with funerary scenes. Elaborate doll houses meant for occupants of this world would have to wait about 3,500 years. The oldest dollhouse on record was conceived as a toy, but upon completion was literally deemed a work of art. In 1558, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria commissioned a four-story miniature palace for his daughter, to be filled with intricate furniture. This was no mere wooden shell for doll beds and chairs - the rooms included a wine cellar, larder, cow barn, second-floor orchard, and a fourth-floor chapel with a miniature priest and musicians. But pity the Duke's daughter: when the house was finished, the Duke decided it belonged in his art collection.

The Duke's elaborate doll house, known today as the Munich Baby House, was likely burned in a fire in 1674.

Adults and Their Baby Toys
Today, the words baby and toy are thought to have a single, clear meaning, which can mislead us into thinking that the earliest doll furniture ideas were for children's toys. In fact, the words baby and toy were quite commonly used in centuries past to refer to smallness rather than infants and their playthings, just as today some very small dog breeds are known as toys.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, doll houses were known as baby houses or cabinet houses, and were built principally for wealthy adults rather than children. Doll armoires or doll wardrobes were displays of craftsmanship, wealth, and decorative taste rather than realistic toys for imaginative play.

Toys as Artrt
Even as doll houses and doll furniture became more affordable, commonplace children's toys throughout the late-19th and early-20th century, the ambiguity of "art or toy?" remained. The Stettheimer Dollhouse, begun in 1916 and now on display at the Museum of the City of New York, even featured miniature works created by the Stettheimer's artist friends, including a mini-Nude Descending a Staircase by the original artist, Marcel Duchamp.

So is doll furniture art or toy? Both: it's an art of play.