Caroline Hamilton: A Legacy in Miniature
Caroline Hamilton, a towering figure in the world of miniatures, has passed away at the age of 86. As the co-founder of the London Dollshouse festival, she played a pivotal role in elevating the niche hobby of "dollshousing" into a globally recognised art form and leisure pursuit. Her dedication to fostering creativity and community among makers and collectors has left an indelible mark on the craft.
The Birth of a Festival
In the mid-1980s, Caroline Hamilton established the London Dollshouse festival, driven by her frustration at the lack of local events for enthusiasts. The festival, held annually since 1985 at Kensington Town Hall in west London, quickly became an essential destination for anyone interested in miniatures. It offered a platform for the world's finest miniaturists to showcase their work across diverse media, including glass-blowing, woodwork, and ceramics, in scales ranging from 1:12 down to 1:144. Visitors could find everything from pocket-money pieces to high-end collector items, all mostly handcrafted, inspiring a new generation of hobbyists.
From Festival to Fair
Caroline ran the event until 2005, later rebranding it as the Kensington Dollshouse Fair, and it is now known as the London Dollshouse Showcase. Her meticulous attention to detail set the show apart, attracting makers who produced museum-standard work and drawing appreciative collectors from around the globe. Even after her cancer diagnosis in the late 1980s and the tragic death of her husband, Patrick, from a heart attack at the 1993 festival, she remained steadfast in her commitment, ensuring the event continued to thrive.
Literary Contributions and Personal Style
Beyond the festival, Caroline authored Decorative Dolls' Houses in 1990, a book that broke away from the traditional step-by-step craft guides of the time. Her lively, anecdotal, and opinionated writing style ignited interest in doll's houses as an adult pastime and revived childhood passions for many readers. She shared colourful stories, such as how she and her friend Jane Fiddick collected shattered windscreen fragments from a car park to use as ice cubes for a 1:12 scale fishmonger's shop, showcasing her innovative and irreverent approach to miniaturisation.
Collaboration and Creativity
Caroline's partnership with Jane Fiddick, which began during their undergraduate years at Oxford University and was renewed as young mothers in Kew, west London, was central to her work. Together, they took woodworking classes and embarked on creating scale models of caravans, shops, and homes, electrifying them with eclectic and often humorous designs. Their collection, chronicled in Our Dollshouses (2015) and now on permanent display at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire, included diverse scenes like a flat above a pharmacy inhabited by a "hard-working showgirl" and a pebbledash bungalow named "Sea View," reflecting their ability to capture the nuances of real life in miniature.
Early Life and Personal Challenges
Born in Budapest on the day Hitler invaded Poland, Caroline was the elder daughter of a German-Swiss mother and an English father who served as an SOE officer during World War II. Her family moved to Wales during the war, and later to Belgium and Argentina due to her father's job with Unilever. Educated as a boarder at Badminton School in Bristol, she saw her family only during holidays after long transatlantic voyages. She studied German and French at St Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating in 1961, and married Patrick Hamilton in 1964. Despite being told that having children might worsen her hearing loss, which began at university, she had two sons and a daughter, later using hearing aids.
Mentorship and Lasting Impact
Caroline was relentlessly pragmatic, focused on fostering enjoyment of the hobby and encouraging emerging talent. She provided support and advice to miniaturists, long before social media, creating a platform where buyers, makers, and aficionados could connect. Among her early protégés were Kevin Mulvany and Susie Rogers, who crafted a doll's house inspired by her grandparents' home in Versailles and are now renowned makers. She also helped develop the career of Laurence St Leger, a former jeweller, whose functioning Swiss Army knife won the fair's Perfection in Miniature competition in 2015, which Caroline continued to judge even after stepping down from running the show.
Survivors and Legacy
Caroline Hamilton is survived by her children, Alexander, Stephanie, and Dominic, her grandchildren, Emilie, Théo, Sophia, Caspar, Isabel, Julian, Thomas, and Nico, and her sister, Monica. Her legacy lives on through the continued success of the London Dollshouse Showcase and the vibrant community of miniaturists she helped to nurture, ensuring that the art of doll's houses remains a cherished and inspiring pursuit for generations to come.
