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Category / Teeny Tiny Stuff

When Injury Killed His Humble Dream, He Built a Whole Miniature World Instead

Death seemed to stalk Michael Zoettl from birth. His mother died when he was a child. He nearly drowned, then almost burned to death. When the Asiatic flu pandemic swept through Europe in 1889, killing 1.5 million worldwide, Michael fell ill and developed permanent heart palpitations. Zoettl was 14 years old when, in 1891, the German…

Love at First Instagram: Tiny Envelope Paintings

This is a quick one– just a “love at first instagram” kind of thing. These are the opaque watercolour or gouache paintings of Lucy Halcomb, an illustrator, graphic web designer and Brooklyn-based “pen pal”. Her instagram account is a record of her outgoing mail (lucky recipients), on which she paints little nostalgic pop culture artworks. Is it…

20 Wendy Houses for the Peter Pan in You

Some of you may find this article choice a little too “twee”, but I can’t even help myself. I want a Wendy House. Better yet, I want someone to build me a Wendy House. Before we get started, let’s just be clear on what exactly a Wendy House is. Made for Wendy Darling in J. M. Barrie’s play, Peter…

The Magnificent Miniatures

So painstakingly detailed, you could easily mistake these photographs for real life-sized rooms straight out of a decorating magazine or a coffee table book for ‘grand home design’. These are miniature models made on a scale of one inch to one foot– that includes the upholstery, textiles, rugs, curtains, hand-painted wall-paper and hanging miniature art. They were…

Curiosity du Jour: Antique Intaglio Seals

When we stopped writing letters, it wasn’t just our penmanship that went down the toilet, but the entire art of letter-writing, and all the romance and ceremony that came with it. Arguably the loveliest victim to have disappeared from our desks in the wake of its decline? The intaglio seal. Intaglio seals, essentially engraved gems,…

The Lost Art of Victorian Human Hair Shrines

Meander through enough Sunday flea markets, and you’re bound to come across a Victorian grief shrine every now and again. They’re quite hypnotising objects, with their lacquered wood frames and bulbous glass encasing tiny flower-baskets, spindly trees, and elaborate landscapes. Take a closer peak, and you’ll realise you’re looking at a shrine made of someone’s…

Strange Objects of Desire: Victorian Glassware

If there’s one thing I’m almost certain about when it comes to Victorians–it’s that they had a heck of a lot of time on their hands. Without Instagram to fill those empty moments, Pinterest to procrastinate through their evenings or Netflix to swallow up their weekends, Victorians by default, were a pretty creative and curious bunch.…

The Irresistible Charm of Miniature Limoges SnuffBoxes

Keeper of blushing secrets to tobacco snuff, pins & needles to pills, the Limoges trinket box is one of France’s greatest feats of craftsmanship. The rise of Limoges porcelain traces back to a time of bygone luxury in France and its story spans across centuries. Amongst the beautiful plates, terrines, and saucers that came out…

A Brief Compendium of Beautiful Bird Cages

I‘m less interested in keeping a bird in a cage than I am in keeping a cage– minus the bird. This is one of those purely indulgent posts where the internet has turned my passive admiration for something into near-obsession. It starts somewhere like Pinterest or eBay and goes something like this: Say, that’s a great…

The Unexpected Elegance of Antique Salt Cellars

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: there is no better entertainment than watching the rich out-rich each other. Especially when all the standard bling has been bought, and folks start getting really creative – like, salt-shaker-bedazzling creative, which was the class act move for ye olde aristocrats in need of a stand…

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