Local woman creates Christmas in her amazing dollhouse

PITTSFIELD – One look into Violet Wilcox’s dollhouse, now decorated for Christmas, and one enters a place of enchantment.

In the living room, in front of the bay window, framed with custom made lace curtains and deep red swag valences, stands the Christmas tree. It is festooned with bright red and green lights.

A lovely, albeit tiny, angel surveys the Lilliputian world from the tree top.

On top of the piano, along with old-fashioned framed photos, is a bitsy nutcracker under a glass dome.

Two stockings, about an inch high, hang from the fireplace mantle and Christmas cards, about the size of thumbnails, stand along the mantle top.

Asleep in a chair

On a chair in the living room, a realistic little girl is in dreamland.

“She fell asleep waiting for Santa,” Mrs. Wilcox said and then laughed.

She bought the little girl figure, as well as a second one seated at the dining room table waiting to eat, because they resembled her own daughters when they were little.

The little girl figures, as well as a mother in the bathroom, are all the creations of a miniatures artist named Susan Sogan.

It’s hard to move one’s eyes from room to room in the dollhouse because there is so much to look at and the details are breathtaking.

Tiny turkey and all the trimmings

Christmas dinner actually stands ready on a cart in the dining room. Mrs. Wilcox made the yummy-looking dinner out of a type of clay. There’s a turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and the tiniest olives you will ever set your eyes on.

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There’s a round green wreath-like centerpiece with green, red and silver balls on top in the middle of the dining room table, as well as a red candle.

The table is set with elegant bone china from England.

How an artist created the hand-crocheted tablecloth defies imagination. The artisan took a common pin, bent it to make a hook and crocheted the cloth out of silk floss, Mrs. Wilcox said.

A fluffy white cat sits on one of the dining room chairs. His dinner, a tiny mouse, is nearby on the floor.

Radio plays music

There’s an old-fashioned, curved top radio, too. Mrs. Wilcox even managed to turn its knob, and out came real music.

A very small Christmas tree covered with candy decorations rests on top of the dining room fireplace. A floor lamp has an elegant-looking glass lamp shade with hand-painted pink roses all over it and is fringed with crystal beads. It casts comforting light in that section of the dining room.

Real silver angel candleholders, made by a Canadian artist, are also on top of the mantle.

In the kitchen, with its black and white tiled floor, the white table holds all kinds of Christmas treats. There are cookies that have wreaths and Santa faces on them, muffins, candy canes and even a pumpkin pie that Mrs. Wilcox made.

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A mansion, not a cottage

Mrs. Wilcox’s masterpiece is more of a mansion than a dollhouse. It’s filled year-round with intricate, miniscule accessories, many made by skilled miniatures craftspeople and artists.

There are exquisite details in the dollhouse’s furniture, room accessories, lamps, tablecloths and even neatly folded mini-towels and hundreds of other items.

Mrs. Wilcox, a talented artist herself, has been working on the house for 19 years.

She purchased blueprints for the house in Vermont in the 1980s and hung on to them for 10 years.

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Cabinet maker builds the dollhouse

In those days, she worked in retail at the former Bradlee’s Department Store. A co-worker’s husband (the late Robert Manning) was a cabinetmaker.

Mrs. Wilcox inquired whether he would be able to build her dollhouse. He agreed; she finally handed over the blueprints, and the cabinetmaker went to work.

Days, weeks and four months went by. When he finally presented the house to her, he said, “Here you go. I will never do this again.”

Apparently, building the house was a more ambitious endeavor than originally anticipated. The final dollhouse, however, turned out to be a masterpiece and he charged her only $122.

Ten rooms and then some

It has 10 rooms plus an attic, porches, hallways, back rooms, staircases and so forth.

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Mrs. Wilcox’s husband, Richard, joined in her project and installed lighting, wallpaper and flooring throughout each room and even wainscoting in the kitchen and bathroom.

Whenever they traveled, the couple made visits to miniature shops. Mrs. Wilcox also attended many shows featuring the work of talented artists whose specialties were creating objects in miniature.

Prices of items sold by the professionals are often quite expensive, and she admits there is a lot of money invested in her very special dollhouse. She has recorded each item and its price in a notebook since day one.

Decorations stored in baskets

Currently, Mrs. Wilcox keeps the dollhouse in a second floor room in their Pittsfield home. On the table underneath are baskets where she stores decorations for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, birthdays and so forth. The dollhouse gets decorated for all of those.

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Her search for dollhouse accessories, furniture and so forth, has taken Mrs. Wilcox to Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and, of course, Massachusetts, to name a few.

Trip to a mountain top

A miniature artist’s business, called “Precious Little Things,” which is by invitation only, was located way up high on a mountain top in Vermont, but Mrs. Wilcox made the trip.

She’s purchased things at an annual miniatures show in Sturbridge, too, as well as from a miniatures business called “Pinocchio” in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Like its counterparts in the “big” world, Mrs. Wilcox’s decorated dollhouse is ready for the holidays.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on December 20, 2012. Filed under Arts and Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry