Getting Back to Miniatures

So without too much enthusiasm I thought I might as well slap a few layers of paint on the basic 1/12th scale white-wood dresser, dig about in my boxes of treasures and concentrate on vintage/antique pieces where I could. It was better than tackling the pile of ironing ......

And what do you know....I was enjoying myself.  Before the second layer of paint was on the dresser I was rooting around and rediscovering pieces that had been displayed 'temporarily' elsewhere or actually acquired because I'd imagined them on an old dark and distressed shelf one day. Top of the list was this lovely vintage but damaged clock and the elderly wooden plate from my friend Celia at KT Miniatures, and the old gent and his wife which I painted decades ago, a perfect miniature reproduction of the china pair that sat on my Granny's mantlepiece.

There is a sprinkling of Elisabeth Causeret, and the full size Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Staffordshire) on the top shelf were once in the family home.  Victoria Fasken's glorious blue bowl picks up the colour from the 'plate' behind - actually a vintage enamelled brooch. Some items have been with me for a time like the Staffordshires and the stoneware jars at the bottom, and sadly although I can't recall all the makers' name I will always appreciate their artistry.  On that very bottom shelf an old handmade pewter pendant, made by an aunt, doubles as a tray and the wonderful set of pans was made for me by a lovely craftsman many, many years ago after he retired as an engineer on the Great Western Railway.

 

If I have a favourite item it's probably the 1900s bentwood Scandinavian style storage box, (that, and the clock started me off) purchased at an antique's fair, I've never seen anything quite like it  before.

Now all I have to do is find a home for the dresser...... I think the perfect place is next to one I finished last year and the late C19th dresser which contains a wonderful selection of antique glass.  I expect it was played with by the girls in the (1920s) photo alongside and probably originally belonged to their mother and aunts......

.......and fill in the gaps on other displays where I have taken pieces for the vintage dresser. Oh, and I've found a 1/24th scale set of glass-fronted shelves........that had already been painted.....

Thanks for looking
Robin