Marking an Occasion
The impetus for most commissions is usually a renovation or a sale, explains Robert Paisley. One father received a scale model of the home he had renovated for decades as a 70th birthday gift from his children, while a trio of daughters in Ireland commissioned Chisel & Mouse for more poignant reasons: “They were moving their father into a home after their mother had died, so they clubbed together to have a commission done of their family home. They wanted one piece for each of them and one for their dad to take with him.”

Paisley has also worked with the Perez Art Museum in Miami, producing 50 miniatures as thank-you gifts for major donors, as well as several condo developments whose off-plan buyers received a maquette of the future building as a closing gift.

Chisel & Mouse isn’t alone. A cottage industry of architectural model-makers has arisen in the U.K. to offer this bespoke service, with Mulvany & Rogers at the higher end.

“The majority of our work is commissioned from the states,” explains Susie Rogers, co-owner of  Mulvany & Rogers, via email. “We’ve made a copy of the London house where a U.S. client lived while he was seconded to London. His children were born there, and he wanted to remember the happy times on his return to the U.S.”

She says that prices vary, but start at 60,000 pounds for bespoke work. The firm keeps a waiting list, which can range from 9 months to three years.

A Celebration of Architecture
Timothy Richards makes miniature models, too, viewing them as scuptures via an approach he considers lyrical, even poetic. “When you pour that plaster in, you have to let the material go, just to do its magic. I am at the behest of the materials,” Richards says via phone from his studio near Bath. These aren’t simply doll house-like miniatures, he stresses. They are stand-alone artworks.

“I always say you can make great models out of great buildings,” says Richards. “They’re avenues—funnels—into this wonderful world of architecture and what buildings mean to us. They’re a celebration of architecture.”

Bespoke commissions contribute from 45 percent to 50 percent of his business. Ideally, Richards spends about six months on each piece, with prices starting at 8,000 pounds. He works in styrene and other materials, building scale models by hand. (Like the Paisley brothers, he was obsessed with Airfix models as a child). Richards has produced everything from the façade of a house on London’s Hampstead Heath to a tabletop model of one of England’s few Tudor-era palaces that remains a private home. Rather than simply reproduce this building, he added period details to the landscape around it: a Henry VIII-like king and his procession approaching from one side and a hunt chasing stags on the other.

Historic Legacy
That all these model makers are based in Britain, is less a coincidence than a legacy of history. Arguably, the most impressive collection of small-scale architectural replicas in the world is contained in London’s Sir John Soane’s Museum. The renowned 19th century architect amassed this haul, and the maquettes in his former home serve as staples for courses at architecture and design schools in the U.K. Most were made for Soane by French artisans Jean-Pierre and François Fouquet—Regency-era Chisel & Mouse, if you will—who earned widespread accolades for the intricacy of their miniatures.

The Fouquets kept their plasterworking technique, which allowed them to execute in such detail, such a closely guarded secret that after they died, it became almost impossible to create such precise, small-scale replicas in plaster. Modern techniques such as computer-aided design have overcome this two-century impasse.