| The House on Top, 1982 General Range (John Hine) | |
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| Size: 6 x 5 x 4 1/4 inches
Originally $92, in stock at $250 800 634-0431 or email This is another treat for the collector to go exploring with a magnifying glass to discover delightful pieces of detail. The suggestion for this sculpture is that a house has been built on a sheer piece of rock jutting out from the edge of a lake. Because it is impossible to add on to the ground, the house has developed over the centuries, clinging to the rock face, supported by great beams of oak.
Also a so-called "Fantasy" piece (along with House of the Master Mason, Hermit's Humble Home and Woodcutter's Cottage). Rare early pieces have a sheer drop leading from just outside the double doors of the "house on top" down into the cave below which was blocked up very soon into production. During the first two years, the gaps which originally existed behind the curved beams supporting the overhanging buildings were gradually filled in with greenery. By 1984 they had all been blocked up up. Beyond the main double doors is a tunnel which leads right through to the other side of the piece, and halfway along the passage is a half door. This may be missing on later pieces as moulds were deteriorating toward the end of production. When this piece was sculpted in 1982, another company had just started producing miniature cottages and the name "House on Top" is a veiled reference to the superiority of David Winter Cottages.
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