Collecting Miniature Villages
I have an utter fascination with miniature villages. These tiny worlds are frozen in time, or perhaps are simply parallel universes, which I might inhabit in another life. When I went to Paris, I brought back several little Parisian buildings made of resin as the start of a collection, and added to it a few years later at Epcot Center at Disney World. Until I found the webpages listed below, I thought it would be many years before I could acquire new additions.
Many,many people find collecting the little worlds of Department 56, Hummel, Thomas Kinkade and others to be a worthwhile and fulfilling hobby. It is a particularly popular holiday pastime at Christmas, when happy days of yesteryear in New England or Victorian days are set out as decorations.
This is not a late 20th-century phenomenon, however. The earliest "miniature" scenes, no doubt, were Nativity scenes depicting the birth of Jesus. These were built by hand by the faithful, wishing to give something to the God they worshipped.
Dollhouses, of course, are another way of entering a miniature world of the imagination. While that is not the subject of this article, if you are looking for accessories for your villages, try searching the many dollhouse/miniature sources at Pat Kasell's Dollhouses & Miniatures here at the Suite.
The custom of adding figures and places from real-life may have begun in Provence during the 18th century. By modeling the shepherds, animals and stable from the counterparts of daily life, the craftspeople could give something from their hearts as well as enable the viewers to relate to things they recognized. This description from the website of La Provencale of Galena, in Illinois, explains the origin of "Santons":
"The "Santon" originated in Provence, in the South of France, at the end of the 18th century. The word Santon is the French equivalent of the Provençal diminutive "Santoun", which mean "little saint". In 1793 the churches were closed, by government decree. Before then, Life-size crèches, or nativity scenes, were created at Christmas Time in Christian churches. The principal figures in these crèches were Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Three Kings, and other figures. This custom dated from the time of St. Francis of Assisi who had created the first living crèche for the Christmas of 1223, at Grecchio, in the Abbruzes of Italy. People of Provence, saddened by their closed churches, resolved to make their own crèches at home. A touching, original note was added when they decided to include statues of themselves in their crèches. Thus Jesus was represented as being born in Provence among its people. Each individual statue bore its gift to the Child, and was clothed in the costume of the time. The statues were made of soft clay, the soil of Provence, easy to work with. The soft clay was forced by hand into the parts of the mold which were brought together like the two half-shells of a nut. The santon was taken out, trimmed and baked. One must not forget the the Greeks settled in Provence five centuries before Jesus Christ and brought to the natives of the Mediterranean coast their skills of pottery making in particular, as well as their many techniques of art in general."
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