The Valerie Thompson Collection
Over the coming months, collectors can look forward to the unique opportunity of acquiring the wonderful work of the late Valerie Thompson. M&M Specialist Auctioneers are delighted to be working with Val’s family in finding potential new homes for some of these unique and wonderful pieces she spent hours meticulously crafting and constructing her work with no stone left un-turned in terms of quality and detail.
A look into the World of Val Thompson and her Doll Houses
Val’s love of British social history, antiques and a propensity for living in the past found a new creative outlet in the early 1990s when she was bought her first dolls house, a battered, secondhand car boot find, by her daughter Tracy. Val transformed this first project into a blacksmith’s forge, a typically nostalgic choice, as her father had apprenticed as a blacksmith when he was a boy.
This proved to be a catalyst for a love affair with dolls houses and Val progressed rapidly to become an extremely competent and prolific maker with an obsession for period correct details. Within the first six years of her new hobby, she had created around 12 different dolls houses, primarily 1920s shops such as a post office, butchers, antiques shop, and a chemist, copied from the BBC programme, The Dandelion Dead, featuring the Armstrong poisoning case from Hay-on-Wye.
These initial, and subsequent, projects were reflective of Val’s approach to dolls housing. She was inspired by literature, period television dramatisations and real life locations of notable historical events. Her research archives evidence extensive photography of particular locations so she was able to replicate properties and scenes as accurately as possible. She was a great admirer of Robert Stubbs and, typically modest, compared herself most unfavourably to him!
In 1997 Val rose to prominence when her husband, Derek, persuaded her to respond to Radio Times’ request for fans’ expressions of devotion to the BBC dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice. Val had spent an entire year creating a huge, four foot, version of the Bennet’s house, Longbourn, from Jane Austen‘s novel which, for the television programme, was filmed at Luckington Court in Wiltshire. Her unwavering drive to replicate Longbourne, to the best of her ability, even necessitated that she commissioned the making of a bespoke, copper, roll-top bath for the perfect look! From the seeds of this initial, national article, Val went on to gain further, unsought publicity, featuring on the front cover of Dolls House World magazine in issue 62, in the Cotswold Journal and on the Central News television programme.
Val delighted in creating extensively lit houses and was proud of teaching herself the intricacies of doll’s house electrics. She passionately created fine details, crafting period correct miniature books, periodicals and items such as fruit and vegetables. Her eye for detail even went as far as decorating fire places with real ash, for maximum authenticity. She took immense pride in creating rows of houses, including gardens, roads, motor vehicles / horse and carts and other accompanying accoutrements such as post boxes, telephone kiosks and notices, to produce complete scenes rather than houses in isolation. Val packed her houses full of contents for a real, lived in look. Val was never interested in attempting to make a living from this; they were made purely for her own pleasure and enjoyment and to facilitate her desire to immerse herself in the past.
Val went on to make in excess of 40 exquisite and extraordinary dolls houses in her lifetime, including townhouses, pubs, solicitors’ practices, grocery stores, a toy shop (including miniature Steiff bears), a music shop, a travel agents, a book shop, cafes and many others. She created a Miss Marple collection, inspired by the Agatha Christie novels and its dramatisation, featuring Joan Hickson. Her unique and captivating Harry Potter collection features notable properties from Diagon Alley, many of which contain owl droppings (fake of course!) for added authenticity. Val also produced a collection of Victorian London townhouses, incorporating Dickens’ inspired properties such as the Old Curiosity Shop and Pickwick Club, and Baker Street houses inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes, plus a bawdy “Dirty Dick Inn”, featuring a resident lady of the night!
Val’s family adore her creations and are hugely proud of her achievements and craftsmanship. They reached out to Dolls House World magazine in autumn 2021 and the magazine kindly did a feature on the collection, in issue 346. If space permitted, they would love to keep the collection but unfortunately this is not possible, so they welcome approaches from interested parties. Approximately 25 of the 40 houses are for sale
