3/12/23. Mansions in Miniature: Four Centuries of Dolls' Houses. The first dolls' house or baby house known to have existed was commissioned by Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, in 1557. It is unlikely that it was intended for his children, for the records tell us that it was an elaborate model, reflecting in rich detail the life in a princely house. Unfortunately it has not survived, but dozens of magnificent examples still exist and are included in this book. Seventeeth-century baby houses from Nuremberg, Strasbourg and Basle provide an excellent record of life in a middle-class household during that period. They preserve in miniature many things that in full scale have come down to us only in isolated instances or are known only from written records. This book includes many of those contemporary descriptions. The Nuremberg baby houses had proper facades; in Holland, on the other hand, the lavishly appointed baby houses of the well-to-do were built into cabinets -- real showpieces, as were the English baby houses from the first half of the eighteenth century.