They were usually made to actually slot inside a cabinet. It would have the appearance on the outside of an ordinary piece of furniture but when it was opened it revealed an impressive dolls house with many rooms. On the inside there would be all the furniture scaled down to size and the craftsmanship was of the highest standards.

The dolls which were usually made of wood or wax are extremely collectible toys today.

Antique wax dolls are usually made by pouring wax into a mould. Wax does not really seem to be the perfect material for making dolls but they were less fragile than bisque or china and it could be tinted to give the doll a beautiful and realistic skin tone.

It is quite difficult to accurately date these dolls because they were hard to mark and the only way they could do this was by labelling them.

It was in the 19th century that “baby houses” began to be known as dolls houses and were often found in the nurseries of the children belonging to wealthy families.

They were usually furnished with exquisite needlepoint rugs and couches upholstered in silk. The furniture was more often than not made of fine wood and was accurately cut down to scale.

By the end of the 19th century the dolls were made of bisque and glazed china. The attention to detail was amazing and very often the dolls were even equipped with their own gloves, purses, fans and even sewing kits! This made them very easy to personalise and the accessories became very popular gifts for her.

In recent times plastic and metal dolls houses were introduced but undoubtedly it is the amazing craftsmanship of the early “baby houses” which have stood the test of time that will definately remain firm favourites with miniature collectors today.

There are several ways of watching TV on the computer. TV programs can be seen after they are aired, or they can be watched live on the PC, just as on the television. To see individual programs, episodes or movies that have already been aired, often these videos can be downloaded from the internet for an individual fee. Why would you want to do this? Not only is this a legal and rapid manner of obtaining the program that was missed, but the program can then be contained in a single file on your computer for a longer period of time, wherein you can watch it repeatedly.

More economical in the long run is to watch and record live TV. Whilst the legalities of recording live TV on the computer will not be covered here, it is easily accomplished through the use of a TV tuner card. A TV tuner card can be easily obtained for about $100 US or less, and enables the user to view live television. Note that an antenna must also be bought, but most TV tuner cards should have a small external antenna supplied if you do not have one from your TV itself.

After purchasing a TV tuner card, it is very easy to watch live TV using bundled software. However, if this software is not to your liking, or if you want software with further features, programs can be bought and downloaded from many companies worldwide.

So what’s the advantage of a TV tuner card over downloading individual programs? Quite simply, a TV tuner card not only enables you to watch the latest live television, but also gives you the option of saving them to your hard drive (please note legalities), whilst most of the latest television programs are not freely available on the net. Furthermore, TV tuner cards can give you access to a wide range of broadcasts- and hence you can view analog television or High Definition broadcasts. Hence, this saves you having to purchase accessories for a HDTV such as a set-top box or DVD recorder.

From an economical point of view, you can watch HDTV through a $100 TV tuner card for much less than having to buy a $2000 HDTV and a $200 HDTV set top box. In addition, there exists a burgeoning market for HDTV USB TV tuners, with prices as low as $60. With a simple USB device, similar to a USB drive, one can watch TV on a laptop, or even on any computer with a USB port.

Another way of watching TV on your computer is to Watch TV Online. There are many websites, like Soltrago or another that allows this feature for free. From my point of view, this is the best way to watch TV on your computer. You dont have to but a TV card or to pay a small fee for watching Online TV. It is free and legal.

The choice is yours. Whilst the advantages of watching TV on the computer have been outlined above, there are still disadvantages. To name a few, TVs are typically larger than computer monitors, and hence will give a more dynamic cinema’ experience. Additionally, the signal strength of a TV (using an aerial mounted on the roof) is usually stronger than the signal from a TV tuner card using a small external antenna.

If you think the advantages of watching TV on the computer outlay the disadvantages, then it would surely be a good investment- not only for yourselves, but also your friends, family and future. In my opinion, Online TV is the future of Television.