All Girls Need A Barbie Dollhouse
This origin of dollhouses is shrouded in mystery. Dollhouse historians say they date back over four centuries and were a favorite of children as far back as the 1500s. The recorded history of dollhouses begins in the 1800s when dollhouses were manufactured for sale for the first time. Regardless of then the first dollhouses were built, the have provided generations with joy from the earliest dollhouses to the popular Barbie dollhouse that came out in the mid 1900s.
In the 1500's it's likely that only the children of the wealthiest class could afford the ornate dollhouses of the time. The oldest dollhouses were not necessarily designed to resemble the castles of the time but they were more elaborate than the houses of commoners.
Production of dollhouses on a large-scale began in Germany in the 1800s and that's also when the written history of dollhouses began. When dollhouses began to be mass produced they became affordable to a wider class of people so they were not just a toy for the children of the wealthy. Since dollhouses became more widespread, we can trace the beginning of dollhouse collection to these beginnings.
Throughout the history of dollhouses from the 1800s to the newest Barbie dollhouse, they've taught children about family values and about growing from a child to an adult. But perhaps more importantly, dollhouses have provided the vivid imaginations of children with a creative outlet. It's not uncommon for dollhouses to pass from one generation to the next. Dollhouses can bring families closer together and provide a bonding experience between parent and child. It's not known exactly when but at some point in time dollhouses transformed from primarily a children's toy to more of a valuable collectors item. More and more dollhouses were displayed and sold at arts & crafts shows and dollhouses became less and less of a child's toy. Each piece of ornate miniature furniture became more valuable as time passed. This is hardly unusual. A similar transformation happened with baseball cards. Baseball cards that sold for a nickel and came with a piece of bubble gum decades ago now command thousands of dollars in mint condition. Dollhouse museums have become common displaying the older and well taken care of dollhouses of over 100 years ago. Despite the transformation of dollhouses from a toy to a collectable, today's children still have many choices when it comes to enjoying dollhouses. The Barbie dollhouse was introduced as the "Dream House" and most dollhouses today are made from plastic. Plastic made be more durable and less expensive to mass produce but plastic dollhouses certainly lose some of the magic of the ornate dollhouses of the past decades and centuries. The history of dollhouses mirrors the history of many other types of collectibles and if you're like most people you remember when you could buy a nice dollhouse for a fraction of what they cost today. If only you had known you could get a huge return on your dollhouse investment, you'd have bought several dollhouses decades ago and kept them in pristine condition. You wouldn't be alone in that thought.
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