Small things make us feel in control of our life. No matter how difficult it is to keep matters of our life in management, small things always remain the puppets of our hands. One of these small things involves miniatures.
Miniatures have been in our lives even before we had the toys that we have now. Egyptians and Armenians were the earliest known humans that brought miniatures into existence.
These artifacts may now be a mere point of distraction; a source of psychological relief; something that reminds us to feel control of life. These miniatures were once more than that. They possessed high significance.
The modern era spins around these artifacts while history has a unique story carved on its wings regarding miniatures. If you want to explore the history of miniatures, what they are, and why they make us feel in control of our life, then keep reading!
What is a Miniature?
Miniature refers to tiny illuminated manuscripts that play an essential role in the history of the world. They are mini, small-scale replicas of things that we see around ourselves, including animals, furniture, kitchen, dollhouses, toys, and even models of humans.
Miniatures widely include paintings, engravings, and sculptures having their traces dating back to the prehistory of the world.
Miniatures have their own story to narrate, presenting themselves in the form of small-scale items that could be anything. In order to explore the history of miniatures and their significance to make us feel control over our life, continue to read ahead.
The Ancient Era of Miniatures
How old could you think miniatures would be? 100 years old? As a matter of fact, miniatures were created 5000 years ago by Egyptians.
These painstakingly handcrafted replicas were placed in the tombs of the kings and queens of Egypt as a source of what they (supposedly) would rule in their afterlife — the life after death.
It wasn't long before 400 years that miniatures made their appearance in the concept of dollhouses. That was the time when baby houses made their appearance in parts of Europe as well. However, these dollhouses and baby houses were not toys for children to play with.
These miniatures were replica pieces of finely crafted architectural models that were also known as cabinet houses other than being referred to as baby houses. Another fact about these European miniatures is that only the elite could afford these cabinets or baby houses.
It is also believed that those tiny small-scale models are finely and fabulously crafted, having precisely delicate details to the architecture.
This proved to be evident since those miniatures could rival the price of an actual house back in that era.
Miniatures and the Industrial Revolution
Although the miniatures of the age of the industrial revolution witnessed a drastic fall in their demand, these miniatures were crafted by hand only before the occurrence of the industrial revolution.
Those miniatures were referred to as "miniatures for the masses".
It was time for the downfall of these miniatures for the masses since they lacked a critical detail of what the earlier miniatures possessed. Thus, the reason why during and after the industrial revolution after World War II, the prices fell.
Why Miniatures Make Us Feel Control of Our Life?
Miniatures have a "thing" for influencing our lives psychologically. They alter the meaning of our lives in many unimaginable ways. Since the time of Egyptians, supposedly, our puppets have had a tendency to control us.
To put coherently, what we use as our toys actually can make us slaves to them psychologically. These lifeless replicas help us develop a sense of control of our lives. Here's how:
We Rule the World We Create
Miniatures are tiny little replicas of anything you like. The list includes:
● Your favorite sports
● A non-existing character of the fairytales
● An animal that once lived but now resides in bedtime stories
● Your favorite celebrity
● A state-of-the-art architectural model
● Kitchen, bedroom, living room, or a house with every detail of an actual house yet on a significantly smaller scale
And much more.
In addition, what is fascinating here is that we create our own world of imaginations based on these miniatures. This world is a replica of the real world. Here, problems do exist, but they remain under our control. We control every single movement that takes place in our small world of miniatures.
Miniatures Tell Us That the Problem Isn't as Big as It May Seem
We often lose our calm when we are upfront with a considerable problem. Our world takes seconds to fall apart. We break. We fall. We rebuild and rise.
Miniatures help us astoundingly build up that courage to deal with problems in real life by making us practice the energy we create with these little minions of ours. Miniatures have a charming way of changing our lives for good, making us feel better.
The Takeaway!
Sometimes what we see as huge is, in actuality, a teensy, nifty item. When we look at our problems before we are under severe circumstances, we tend to believe that the situation in front of our eyes is too big to be dealt with.
As we step deeper into it and move past that situation, we realize that it was nothing. Miniatures in some aspects reflect the same.
These tiny little creatures make us feel in control of our lives in several ways. The impact of these small bits on our mental health is inevitably fantastic. They help us develop the lost control we might feel over our lives.
Dated back to centuries, miniatures were the apple of the eyes of kings, queens, and the elite. Though making their way to the homes of those who could not afford miniatures in the early ages, miniatures eventually got categorized.
The modern era miniatures are now no longer to be manipulated by the hands of adults. The nifty contemporary pieces of miniatures can now accessible to children, which was once not recommended for whatever reasons necessary.
From the hands of the ancient humans to the hands of the children and adults of the new era, miniatures have existed for a long time now, and we don't see why we are not parting our ways from these small-scale models and replicas.