Miniature shops: How to design and make them

Dust jacket notes: "Like dollhouses, the earliest miniature shops were built for the wealthy. Today, they are within the reach of anyone who loves miniatures and wants to own a shop that reflects a certain period in time. Finished shops are still expensive, but with the help of this book, a hobbyist can turn inexpensive materials into miniature reproductions of shops from the past. More than 150 photographs accompany the simple instructions. The book is for the collector, as well as for the creator, since the author's research delves into the contents of period shops and could be used as a reference source for acquisitions. The first chapter deals with the construction of the basic shadow box that was used for all the shops and the schoolhouse. There are directions for the basic counters and shelves and other necessities for the shops such as the cash register, telephone, and wall clock. The chapter dealing with the general store explores the contents of a store that was the center of commerce for a small community. It was here that men sat around the pot-bellied stove playing checkers or discussing politics. The mailbox held news of the world or of distant relatives, while the crates and vegeable containers held the staples of life. Farmers looked for new ox yokes and shovels and axes, while their wives shopped for new brooms and bread pans and wistfully stared at the luxuries in the jewelry case. The children eyed the toys and stocked up on school slates. It was a store that served the entire community, and directions for the basics are found in this chapter. Additional chapters tell how to make a Victorian toy shop, a confectionary, and a Victorian millinery. An added bonus in this book is the chapter on the 1861 schoolhouse. Cramped and primitive by today's standards, these one-room schoolhouses, with their double desks and poor ventilation, produced some of the great men and women of the nineteenth century...."