Featured Artifact:
The Forster dollhouse
The Forster dollhouse, with its approximately 900 furnishings and
miniatures, some of which date back to the 1830s, was handed down through
several generations of the Forster family before finding a permanent home
in the museum's collections.
William and Catharine Forster and their children, Julian, Alice, Marie and
Mabel, immigrated to Canada in 1868 and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. Among
the possessions brought with them on a rigorous voyage was a small
collection of miniatures from a dollhouse left behind in Dublin, Ireland.
For many years the miniatures were housed in a drawing-room cupboard and
brought out only on special occasions. In 1921 a Mr. Craddock of Hamilton
was commissioned to build a dollhouse to keep the collection. The dollhouse
is a simple version of Queen Mary's childhood dollhouse. Mr. Kermath, a
talented house painter and interior decorator, created the imitation brick
exterior. A small fingerprint on the sunburst, painted on the gable, was
left by seven-year-old Mabel Malley (the last owner of the house) in her
excitement to see whether the paint was dry.
Over the next forty years the dollhouse underwent a number of modifications
and improvements.
In 1978 extensive renovations were undertaken. The house was completely
electrified; new windows and doors were installed. Silk panels decorated
the dining-room and a door to the bedrooms was placed in the third-floor
corridor for use by the "servants and children." Arthur Russell of Hudson,
Quebec, made the parquet flooring for the dining-room, and the corridors
on the first and second levels. Brick flooring was installed in the
kitchen. Mr. Russell also created a chess set, which rests on an inlaid
table in the drawing-room, as well as a tool-shed and folding garden stand.
The tradition of furnishing the house with only fine handmade artifacts
was carried down from one generation to another, each adding their own
personalized articles. After six generations of loving care and attention,
the house finally stands complete, a history of a family in miniature,
there for us to admire, wonder at and enjoy.