Miniatura

As antique dealers Sadie Golland and her mum Wendy particularly love the Victorian era and the early 20^th century through to the 1950s. Through their work they very often come across antique dolls, dolls houses and dolls house furniture which they sell at Miniatura. Wendy is also a keen collector of Westacre Dolls House Furniture which many people will know was created by Ysabel Birbeck who lived at the very grand Westacre High House in Norfolk. Ysabel would enlist the local people including the children to work for her through the 1920s and 30s. These dolls house furniture pieces are still very much prized today. (more in this blog post)

Inspired to make their own dolls house furniture, Sadie and Wendy began around 30 years ago, selling at local fairs. With Wendy’s background of studying at art college and Sadie trained as a museum they are well placed to create the beautiful black lacquered pieces that they are so well known for.

Sadie says: We make smaller miniatures ourselves from scratch, things like letter racks, trays, pencil pots and so on, plus Wendy makes fruit and veg from Polymer Clay the prices for which range from 10p to about £1.60 per item. That allows the kids to come along and buy a box of fruit and veg quite cheaply. The larger furniture such as 4-poster beds and chairs we buy from Penny’s Toys (Penny’s Whitewood Dolls House Furniture). This comes in plain birch plywood to which we add our artwork and black lacquer.”

S & W Golland sell their miniatures and antique dolls exclusively at Miniatura – they don’t sell any Westacre pieces, however. Sadie and Wendy are looking forward to being at the Autumn Show at the new Stoneleigh venue. Sadie adds: “Selling exclusively at Miniatura means that at the shows, we get people coming straight over to our stall to see what we’ve got. And because some of the pieces are antiques, they know that when it’s gone it’s gone!”