Back in 1986 or ‘87, Elaine asked me to get her a Fairytale Castle; she even pointed me at David Winter, an English sculptor who made cast sculptures of many English countryside buildings and a few fantasy castles as well. I began my quest going to some of the local stores which carried these sort of knick-knacks. While they had many different David Winter Cottages, I couldn’t find the Castle. But, I liked what I saw and picked up a few of the cottages whilst looking for the Castle. I even went to England in 1987 and searched the High Streets for the Fairytale Castle, but to no avail. And I continued to pick up a few pieces that intrigued me, such as the Green Dragon Pub and the Hogs Head Beer House.

The following year I finally found the Fairytale Castle and it joined the small collection I had started. Then I joined the David Winter Guild and started getting pieces regularly, and the collection grew. This continued for another 20 years until David retired in 2010.

In the Hay Creek house we had display cabinets to showcase many cottages and, if I remembered, we would rotate the stored cottages with the displayed cottages. We could display a fair number of cottages, maybe 20-30 at a time. Many of the cottages were small 2x3x4 sculptures, but some of them were massive. If you have a castle with a dragon sleeping around it, it is a big piece.

Then we decided to downsize. I inventoried the cottages as we were packing up and found that I have 184 David Winter Cottages (and Castles). Aaaargh. I can’t keep them all. We don’t have the display cabinets anymore. We have a mantle over the fireplace that can hold a few. Even if I were to religiously rotate them every month or so, we don’t have the space to store all the cottages not on display. (We are not going to fall into the suburban trap of renting a storage space. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t belong.)

My plan is to keep a few of the castles and the Christmas Cottages (and maybe a pub or two) and get rid of the rest. I’m not sure if it worth the hassle of putting them up on ebay. I don’t think the cottages command much of a market today. Maybe I should try a consignment shop?

This week I will organize the collection and figure out where to next.