The House of Miniatures Kits
This is the second part of the Risley Collection. In Risley Collection Part 1 I did a complete overview and talked about why this is a typical miniatures collection. Today we will concentrate on the THoM pieces in this collection.
Built Furniture Kits
Mrs. Risley was a member of The House of Miniatures Collector Club for several years. She appears to have received every kit in the club. She also had a few duplicates and some kits that were not included in the club, such as the Slat Back Chairs.
This video is an overview of the collection. I set out the built kits behind the house (beginning of video), including some broken items. All of them are dusty from years of storage just sitting in the house.
There are 31 completed kits here. There are actually 33 empty boxes (the last stack in the video), suggesting that Mrs. Risley gave away a few pieces of furniture. Or the kitten who attacked the house may have gotten a couple.
Some uncommon pieces among the built kits are the Lyre-Back Chairs and the Queen Anne Wardrobe. The rarest of the built kits are 40079, the Huntboard, and 40082 and 40083, the Queen Anne Side and Arm chairs.
Unbuilt Furniture Kits
In front of the dollhouse are 44 unbuilt furniture kits. Most are still sealed, but some are boxless. There are also two THoM decanter and goblet sets, both brass, and a set of brass door hinges from the official The House of Miniatures products.
The gems in the Risley Collection are sealed kit numbers 40022, 40023, and 40048. These are the Straight-Top Highboy, the Broken-Bonnet Highboy and the Breakfront, respectively.
Summary
There were approximately four years worth of monthly kit shipments in the Collector Club. The Risley Collection contains 77 kits and three accessory items. Mrs. Risley purchased some items at local shops and some at shows, so she may have acquired the dupes that way.
In a couple of weeks I’ll do an article on the dollhouse and the non-THoM miniatures. Later, maybe a year from now, I’ll do a final article covering the repairs and final disposition of the Risley Collection.
It looks like Mrs. Risley stayed in the club right to the end. How about you? Were you ever a subscriber? How long did you stay with it? I only received about six kits before I ran out of money. Did you last longer than I did? I’d like to hear about your experiences, so please comment below or over in the Facebook Group.
I have many kits in boxes that I never made. I bought them in the seventies and eighies. I had small children so never found the time.I would love to sell them very reasonable.
I would be happy to make a fair offer. Please email a list of what kits you have (just the number, eg. 40001) and if the box is opened or sealed.
thehouseofminiatures@gmail.com
thanks!
Please reply to ksc2013@icloud.com as I am looking to buy kits reasonably priced. Thanks. Karen Clayton
I truly enjoy all of your articles. My story is I started receiving these kits once a month when they first came out. I enjoyed building them so much, but I had three small children that required my attention, and they would sneak and play with them and they would break them. I gave up until about 17 years ago, and I saw a huge lot of unopened HOM kits for $20.00. I bought them, and then they sat in my garage for 17 years, and I received a cancer diagnosis and decided to start making my miniatures again. I got 6 pieces made, I got sick and went into the hospital for a few days, and come home and found out my puppy and her cohort got into them and destroyed what I had made, except for one piece, I hope. Anyway I haven’t gone back to building anymore yet, as I now have to buy some new pieces, but I’m still recuperating from my hospitalization. I have to have s surgery in about three weeks, so I’m gonna try to start building before, and then I want to get back to it again after my surgery. I’m really enjoying it at this time of my life, or should I say I was enjoying before the little doggies got into it, lol. Seriously though, I’m excited to get back to it.
Thanks for your efforts Colin , I enjoy reading it all. I never joined the club, started collecting around 1980. My mom sent me a boxful of kits she got at a yard sale and I did a couple then family stuff interfered. I have been buying from eBay and can’t explain it, but just looking at The boxed kits feels good—still trying to make serious time to work on them!
I was a subscriber for 2-3 years when my daughter was younger and loved the kits. Built a small dollhouse for her and now her daughters are enjoying it. Hubby is building a bigger house now for them, and I’ve purchased many kits on E-Bay for that house, and I’ve assembled all of them. I was so happy to be able to purchase the kits and it was like going back in time! Beautiful furniture and a shame they stopped making the kits.
I collected for at least 3 years, they began sending duplicates of the smaller kits when I stopped my subscription. There was a local shop that sold the more expensive kits, so I bought them there. I think I’ve made nearly every kit except the broken bonnet highboy. Maybe soon!!
By the way, it was a black kitten, if it makes any difference.
No doubt from a long line of black cats 🙂
We can’t thank you enough for this series of articles! You have expressed our feelings about the collection beautifully. The collection was from a very memorable time in our lives.
I’m glad you are enjoying it!