Friday, June 08, 2007

My Dad's a model maker!



In 1979, when he should have been thinking about his retirement, my father embarked on a new career as a model maker. 28 years on he is now considered a master of miniatures.

He specialised in tiny reproductions of Louis XV furniture. His piece, the Bureau du Roi, took four years to complete and is now considered to be the finest piece of miniature furniture in the world.

It is fully mechanical and features 16,000 individual pieces of intricately laid fruit woods. A turn of the key automatically rolls up the desktop and unlocks the drawers exactly as in the original piece . The movement is entirely hand made and faithful to the original.

The ormolu mounts are in solid gold and attached by hundreds of hand made screws.

Remarkably, this miniature only measures 3-1/4" deep by 6-1/4" wide


rear view bureau du roi




front view bureau du roi








Miniature inlaid table top








Regency period Crescent commode
Now in his 80's he has reluctantly given up his tiny tools and his massive magnifying glass and is at last having a well earned rest!

13 comments:

Rebicmel said...

Keith,

muy muy bonita (very very beautiful)
It is just exquisite the detail and love and time that went into such a wonderful piece of miniature furniture. What a grand family you have Keith. Seriously you are so blessed, and talented and this you pass to your daughter.. You make me speechless and in awe.

Your friend
Missy

Keith Hillman said...

Missy, such praise coming from you is truly humbling. It's only a shame that the talent in my family skipped a generation!

Keith

~Ambre~ said...

Skipped a generation? I think not Keith! You are indeed a man of unique talents. Your father's work is remarkable indeed!

~down with the generation gap!~

jadey said...

Wow how beautiful. What briliant work. How many pieces has he made? Very nicely done! He deserves a nice rest.

J Morgetron said...

Your dad looks like a character out of a novel. And what an unusual talent!

Magdalen Islands said...

Te piece is priceless I'm sure. Is it in a museum?

On the other topic, you look like your father and you daughter looks like your father also. So I guess she looks like you.

Jayne :) said...

Amazing, truly amazing! What beauty and elegance in such minute detail.

Your father is very gifted Alan :)

jadey said...

Keith just wanted to say I love the pics from the other blog as well around Winchester Cathedral beautiful thanks for sharing them with us.

Hera said...

Hey Keith that is amazing!
See you on Helium.

chris malcomson said...

Love your dads work. been doing miniatures for just under a year now and aspecially the cylinder desk are really something to aspire to. Wow.

UL said...

Ah...now I know where you inherited that nose from...I can see close resemblances between father and son.. beatiful work from Dad! Keith I am really enjoying this rewind into your post, catching quite a few interesting pieces that I would have missed otherwise. Thanks much.

CV. Anindo Furniture Indonesia said...

Hello,
We have some collections of small tables and coffee tables made of solid mahogany plantation wood from Indonesia.
Thank you.
Paul Gang.

PT. New said...

Hello,
We have some collections of teak garden furniture made of solid teak plantation wood grade A only from Indonesia.
Thank you.
Charles Siahaan.