Eastlake Victorian Miniature House
This is a miniature Eastlake Victorian House that I created years ago from the blueprints of a renowned architect. I am looking for a private collector to purchase this scale model or for a museum that would be interested in aquiring it for their collection. This introduction will provide all the details of its construction and its provenance as well as how it came to be. In February, 1979 I began a three year and three thousand plus hour project of building this miniature Eastlake Victorian house from a set of complete blueprints found in an old 1889 training manual for architects and builders. It is constructed faithfully from the blueprints and is a complete house inside and out. It is enhanced beyond the blueprints with authentic period décor and artwork, it does not contain furniture as this was not of interest to me. I feel that a collector would enjoy furnishing the rooms in the house. The blueprints were found in “Practical Lessons in Architectural Drawing” by William B. Tuthill A.M., Architect. fifth edition, 1889. New York. William T. Comstock of 23 Warren St. New York is the Publisher. Tuthill was a well known architect at the turn of the century, most noted for Carnegie hall in New York. His book contains four structures for training architects and builders. A gate keeper’s cottage, a three story storefront building, a church, and a frame house. It is the frame house that I chose to build. Building this house came about by chance when I came across part of the house blueprints in a book in our local library‘s architecture section, this partial blueprint was referenced with a footnote indicating its source. I interlibrary loaned the book and I was sent the original 1889 Tuthill book, and being highly intrigued with the book I decided to photocopy it in its entirety. My background and training has been in fine art and I also am a photographer and painter. I have also had an interest in model making all my life. From the time I began building this miniature house I kept a complete record in photographs, including a written text, of its construction. Consequently, I have a provenance of the entire project including the research materials I used, the facts about the construction of the house, and a chronological record in photographs. I also have a record of where the house has been exhibited. It has appeared in Americana magazine and local newspapers. It has been exhibited to the public in the past at our local library, and various shopping malls. It garnered several awards for miniature construction at that time. In 1981 it was appraised by Daniel Lawrence McNeil, a builder of quality miniatures who has a national reputation and died in 2001. Mr. McNeil was commissioned by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to build replicas of the current and the original Supreme Court chambers. These models are displayed on the ground floor of the Supreme Court today. He and his partner in his business came to my home in 1982 to see the miniature house I had built, and they gave me an appraisal letter valuing the house. The house was constructed with studded walls, joists, and rafters, following closely the building specifications for that period. The house is subtly lighted inside and out with the lights being concealed in overhead beams in the rooms, and recessed in the porch ceilings outside. All the windows and doors work and there are five fireplaces with four of them being of my own design. The blueprints have specifications for every detail of the house, which I faithfully followed. This scale model is scratch built. This means I had to fabricate all of the lumber from larger stock. All the millwork is done through a process of building up the necessary forms that have been cut out by hand. Only 20% of the work was done using miniature power tools the rest is by hand. This is why a room can contain in excess of 2000 pieces. The house is built in one inch equals one foot scale and contains 40,000 plus pieces. All of the interior decoration is of my own inspiration. It is a complete house, including the interior walls that removable, and the house can be opened up along its center line for viewing the entire interior, after removing the interior walls. It is my hope that a museum will desire it for their collection.