The art of the miniature

From flintlock pistols to hunting swords, these diminutive designs demanded consummate skill, infinite patience and serious artistic talent to produce

- Mark Murray-Flutter

THE DIMINUTIVE has almost universal appeal. There is something endlessly fascinating to both children and adults about the world of Lilliput and the art of the miniature. It can be said that miniatures are an expression of the soul that affects people in different ways. To generalise wildly, model ships, toy soldiers and little cars stir the imagination of boys; small dolls appeal to girls; while doll’s houses, complete in every detail, captivate girls, boys and big people as well.

Throughout the ages expert craftsmen have delighted in making tiny pieces of furniture, incredibly small silver sets of tableware, minute musical instruments and working models of machines, and they still do. The world of firearms is no different. Indeed, royalty was particularly partial to possessing miniatures: Louis XIV of France owned many, as did our own George IV, a frustrated soldier-prince. And in more modern times, there is Queen Mary’s doll's house built in the early 1920s.