Dollhouse miniature show - rent tables and more

November 5, 2007

As some of you know, my wife makes dollhouse miniature food.  She is, quite simply, one of the best in the world.  We attended the Philadelphia Miniaturia show this past weekend where she exhibited.   We had a great time catching up with some old friends and making some new ones, as usual.  I didn’t get a chance to visit too many other dealers’ tables, but the guy next to us, Michael Walton, is a furniture maker from Chicago (originally from Ireland).  He does full scale furniture making and antique furniture restoration, but also does dollhouse miniature furniture.  So far, so good.  There are other people who do furniture, just like there are others that do food - few people are successful in a field without competition.  What really caught my eye was one piece in particular: an Irish Rent Table.

He didn’t have a real one with him, unfortunately, but the pictures and story alone were interesting enough.  From his site:

The Drum top revolves on the pedestal to allow the landlord locate the relevant tenants paperwork. The fan inlaid secret compartment in the top rises to allow the “Rent” money to be inserted and held securely in the bottom drawer of the pedestal base.

So, English landlords had their tenants put rent in this little pop-up holder that would rotate around and put the rent in each tenant’s secured lockbox.  Pretty nifty.  To know Michael’s built one of these in 1″ miniature scale - that actually works - is just mind blowing.

I’ve been in the miniature world (via my wife) for over 10 years now.  I’m normally not that impressed with the work of other dealers at these shows.  It’s not that it’s bad - on the contrary, these shows are often filled with world-class craftsmen.  It’s just that most of the items tend to be the same sorts of things, and that’s because most people building dollhouse scale scenes are building the same sorts of things (bedroom scenes, Victorian libraries, etc.)  I didn’t even know what a rent table was when I got there, and I both learned something new and was genuinely impressed by a fellow stallholder this year.

This shouldn’t be construed that simply because I’ve not written about other dealers that I’m not impressed with their work.  It’s just that this is the first time I’ve decided to write about it.  There’s also precious little out there on the web about rent tables, so if this helps people find out about rent tables, all the better.  Michael was telling me he is available to build a full-scale one should anyone wish to commission him to do so.  So there you go - if you’re looking for a world-class replica Irish Rent Table, contact Michael Walton.

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