Paul D. Moore: Architecture in Miniature: The artistry behind one of the miniature world's distinguished architectural makers
There are dollhouses, and then there are miniature houses that make you stop and reconsider what a dollhouse can be. The work of IGMA Fellow Paul D. Moore belongs firmly in the latter category. And perhaps the reason becomes clearer once you know something about the man who built them.
An Architectural Eye from the Beginning
According to the 1996 reference A Reference Guide to Miniature Makers Marks, Moore's relationship with miniature architecture began in childhood, when he built miniature houses and furniture as an expression of his architectural tastes. Before becoming a professional miniature artisan in 1979, he worked as an architectural model maker and as a designer of commercial interiors. Those experiences are more than interesting biographical details. They help explain the extraordinary architectural confidence that distinguishes his miniature work.
Moore understood buildings. He understood proportion, spatial relationships, circulation, architectural detailing, and the way one room relates to another. When he turned professionally to miniatures, he initially concentrated on houses and roomboxes, later expanding into furniture, particularly 18th-century mahogany and walnut case pieces.
The miniature community recognized the quality of that work early. Moore was awarded Artisan status by the International Guild of Miniature Artisans in 1984 and became an IGMA Fellow in 1987. Fellow is the Guild's highest honor, awarded to Artisan members whose work represents what IGMA describes as the "epitome of excellence." Moore also served on the IGMA Board of Trustees from 1987 through 1993, participated on several Guild committees, and served as third vice president during his final year on the board. He later served as president of IGMA in 2003.
By the time the 1996 reference guide was published, Moore was described as creating Georgian-style houses of his own design, custom houses, roomboxes, house boxes, and furniture. His work had also appeared repeatedly in the miniature press, including Nutshell News, Miniatures Showcase, and The Miniature Magazine.
More Than a Container for Miniatures
That background is important because it points to what separates a Paul Moore structure from a conventional dollhouse. Many wonderful dollhouses begin with a commercially produced shell or kit and become extraordinary through what a collector or artisan adds to them: fine interiors, architectural embellishments, lighting, wallpaper, furniture, paintings, silver, ceramics, and countless other details. With Moore, the building itself is the miniature.
The proportions, staircases, landings, fireplaces, doors, windows, paneling, floors, and relationships between rooms are part of a unified architectural composition. His structures do not have to be furnished to command attention. Empty, they are already complete works of miniature architecture. That distinction became especially apparent to me recently when two signed Paul D. Moore structures came to D. Thomas Miniatures from estate collections. They were made only three years apart, yet they demonstrate two very different ways Moore approached miniature architecture.
The 1994 Paul D. Moore Cabinet House
The first is signed Paul D. Moore and dated 1994. I have been calling it a cabinet house, although Moore's own documented categories included "house boxes" and "roomboxes," both of which help describe what this remarkable piece actually is. It is not a conventional dollhouse. It is a beautifully constructed piece of cabinetry containing a complete miniature architectural interior. Behind a glazed front are two levels incorporating four principal spaces, including landings and rooms connected by an exceptional staircase. There are dark hardwood floors, paneled and wallpapered walls, beautifully proportioned doors, fireplaces, architectural moldings, and carefully considered transitions from one space to another.
And then there is the staircase. It rises through the structure with a curved turn and continues to an upper landing bordered by delicate balusters and a dark handrail. It is not simply a functional device for getting from one miniature floor to another. It is one of the architectural events of the house. One lower room is especially striking, with dark wood flooring, a classical fireplace, and a panoramic landscape treatment wrapping around the walls. Upstairs, another room is more restrained, with paneled sections of patterned wall covering, white architectural trim, and another beautifully detailed fireplace. Even the exterior cabinet was treated as a finished object. The dark wood case is enclosed behind glass, fitted with brass hardware, and has substantial decorative carrying handles on its sides. The result has the presence of fine cabinetry: a piece of furniture that happens to contain an architectural world in miniature. For me, this may be the more intriguing of the two structures precisely because it is so concentrated. It offers the architectural experience of a substantial dollhouse without requiring the physical footprint of a large freestanding house.
A Grand Georgian-Style House (1997)
The second structure, signed and dated 1997, is a much more traditional full dollhouse, but Moore's architectural sensibility is immediately evident. Its symmetrical facade is classically composed, with pale clapboard siding, dark shutters, a prominent central entrance, paired chimneys, dormers, and beautiful arched and Palladian-style windows. A strong central pediment gives the facade the kind of order and balance associated with Georgian and Georgian-inspired architecture. Open the house and the real achievement becomes apparent. Rather than filling the structure with numerous small compartments, Moore organized the interior around a center hall and staircase, with large rooms arranged on either side and on the floors above. The staircase and upper landing form the architectural spine of the house. The rooms have something that can be surprisingly difficult to achieve in miniature: breathing room. The windows are substantial. The ceilings feel generous. The fireplaces, paneling, doors, floors, and moldings are appropriately scaled to the spaces around them. The result feels less like a series of boxes and more like an actual house reduced to miniature scale. That is exactly where Moore's earlier experience as an architectural model maker and commercial interior designer becomes so interesting. These interiors feel planned. There is a sense of circulation through them, of moving from a hall into a room and from one floor to another. The staircase is not simply inserted into the structure; the house seems to have been designed around it.
The House Itself Becomes Collectible
Those of us who love fine miniatures naturally spend a great deal of time thinking about what goes inside a dollhouse. Who made the chair? Who turned the bowl? Who painted the picture? Who made the silver? Who wove the rug? With a Paul Moore structure, another question becomes equally important: Who made the house? That changes the nature of collecting. A fine architectural structure can become the foundation around which an entire collection is built. A collector can spend years furnishing a Moore house, adding important pieces gradually while allowing the interiors to evolve. But the structure itself remains an important signed work by a recognized artisan. Moore's standing within IGMA reinforces that distinction. IGMA was founded specifically to promote fine miniatures as an art form and to recognize exceptional workmanship. Its Fellow designation remains its highest honor. Moore's progression from professional miniature artisan in 1979, to IGMA Artisan in 1984, to Fellow in 1987, followed by years of Guild leadership, places his work squarely within the development of the American fine-miniatures movement.
Scarcity, Craftsmanship, and the Secondary Market
There is another reason structures such as these deserve attention today: work of this caliber is finite. A handcrafted architectural miniature is fundamentally different from a manufactured dollhouse that can be produced repeatedly. Each surviving signed Moore structure represents a piece from a recognized artisan's body of work, and the combination of authorship, craftsmanship, condition, scale, design, provenance, and scarcity can make exceptional examples particularly desirable. One striking indication of that interest appeared at Selkirk Auctioneers in 2021, when the Joyce Schoedinger collection was offered for sale. The collection included a large Paul Moore cabinet dollhouse that Selkirk described as "museum caliber." According to Selkirk's post-sale account, the Moore cabinet house became the top lot of the collection, selling for $17,500 including buyer's premium.
That result should not be treated as a valuation for every Paul Moore structure. Miniature houses vary enormously in size, complexity, condition, provenance, design, and marketability. But it is significant evidence that an exceptional Moore architectural work can command serious collector attention on the secondary market.
Look at that Staircase!
If I could offer one suggestion when examining a fine artisan dollhouse, it would be this: before looking at the furniture, look at the architecture. Look at the staircase.
Look at the doors and moldings. Look at the fireplaces. Look at the floors. Look at the windows. Look at how one room leads into another and whether the proportions make you believe, even for a moment, that you could walk through the space. Those are the places where craftsmanship reveals itself. That is certainly true of these two Paul D. Moore structures. The closer I look, the more I discover: the sweep of a handrail, the relationship of a doorway to a fireplace, the way a landing opens onto the floor below, the depth of a window, or the simple confidence of leaving a room large enough to breathe. Nearly thirty years after these particular structures were made, they still invite us to stop, move closer, and look again. And perhaps that is the best way to understand Paul D. Moore's contribution to the miniature world. He didn't simply give collectors another place to put their miniatures. He made the house itself worth collecting.
Coming to D. Thomas Miniatures
I'm delighted to share that both of the Paul D. Moore structures discussed here, the signed 1994 cabinet house and the signed 1997 Georgian-style dollhouse, will soon be offered by D. Thomas Miniatures from estate collections. I'll be sharing detailed photographs and much more information about each structure before they are offered for sale. For now, I wanted to introduce Paul Moore and provide some context for the extraordinary level of design and craftsmanship behind these pieces. Because once you know something about the maker, you begin to see the houses differently. They aren't simply dollhouses.
They are architecture in miniature.
Sources and Further Reading
• A Reference Guide to Miniature Makers Marks (1996), entry for Moore, Paul D. The entry documents Moore's identification marks, categories, professional background, IGMA Artisan status (1984), IGMA Fellow status (1987), Guild
service, and his work in Georgian-style houses, custom houses, roomboxes and furniture.
• International Guild of Miniature Artisans, "Guild Fellow Members." IGMA describes Fellow as the Guild's highest honor and explains the standards applied to Fellow selection.
• International Guild of Miniature Artisans, "About the Guild." The Guild's historical list records Paul Moore as IGMA president in 2003.
• Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers, "Little Objects Were a Big Deal," reporting on the 2021 Joyce Schoedinger collection and the sale of a Paul Moore cabinet dollhouse for $17,500 including buyer's premium.
• Period recognition listed in the 1996 reference guide: Nutshell News (June 1985, February 1986, November 1989, September 1991); Miniatures Showcase (Vol. 2, Winter 1987); The Miniature Magazine (Spring 1981).
Research note: Descriptions of the 1994 and 1997 structures are based on the signed dates, photographs, and observations supplied by the client. The 1996 makers-marks reference is the principal contemporary biographical source used for Paul D. Moore.
