Tiny Tuesday - Phoenix Models Tea Caddy and Cruet set

 This week for Tiny Tuesday I have two dollhouse items by Warwick Miniatures. Warwick Miniatures are made by Phoenix Model Developments who specialise in white metal miniatures. Some of their stuff is amazing in it's detail and historical accuracy. Much of it comes as kits of cast pewter pieces that require painting and assembly. The two items I have today are polished white metal that look rather like silver (but are probably pewter) so they didn't require painting.

 First is this tea caddy. It's TINY! The engraving looks a little crude in this picture but in real life it looks extremely delicate because it's so very small.

The lid is removable and has further engraving. The only fault I can find with this is that I wish the interior was enamelled white. In all honesty, I have no idea if tea caddies were commonly enamelled white on the inside, I just remember that my grandmother's was. I need to look that up and if it turns out that that was indeed how they were made, paint the inside white.

Next is this cruet set. I was determined that my dollhouse family needed a cruet set. Realistically while not every house has a special fancy matching cruet set, it's probably fair to say that a selection of condiments for the dinner table is something you would expect to see in most houses in most eras. And once upon a time (long before I was born) one of my family members always gave people cruet sets as wedding presents, so as a child whenever we visited our older relatives, they always had beautiful cruet sets on their dining tables. Some were used, some were purely decorative, all made excellent makeshift dolls if the adults were being boring. When I wanted one for my dollhouse I discovered they were pretty thin on the ground in dollhouse land but this one is so beautiful, it makes up for all the ones that don't exist.

 There's a decorative stand and six tiny bottles. The bottles are made in pairs, two of each shape. Tall, thin oil bottles, medium sized salt and pepper shaker, and two little pots for pickle or mustard. These are so tiny that when I dropped them on the floor by accident, while taking pictures, I actually found them by closing my eyes and running my hand over the carpet rather than looking for them!

To me it's the little touches like this, that real people would actually have had in their houses, that are often overlooked because they're such a part of day to day life, that take a dollhouse from being a toy or plaything to actually being a miniature representation of life at a moment in time.

And here's another picture of the cruet set with a Lego minifigure for scale.