Plate 33:  The photographer gauges the width of the arch under the battlements
(This plate added FEB 2004)

N Plate 30, we showed the photographer's sketch for a setting that resembles a small castle. Architecturally speaking, the setting comprises four main parts: the bastions, the battlement, the curtain wall, and the entrance.
At this time, we are interested only in the entrance, which, as you can see in Plate 30, is a big stone archway. The question is, "How big should we make the archway?" --more--
We must never forget that we are working in miniature: the entire display surface is only 24 inches wide and 16 inches deep. Every element that we place upon this surface, such as our miniature castle, must not exceed the dimensions of the surface. Keeping this in mind, the Photographer decided that the correct answer to the question: "...How big should we make the archway?" ...is... ..."Wide enough for three toy soldiers marching side-by-side, and high enough for a toy soldier who is wearing a very tall hat, like these fellows in the red coats." At this point, the Collector said to the Photographer: "You know, those aren't really called hats, such as you or I might wear...if we wore hats, that is. Those are called bearskin caps." The Photographer, who was busily taking measurements, replied: "Yes, yes, very interesting, indeed. The point is, however, those are very tall hats that those fellows in the red coats are wearing, and we don't want those tall hats getting accidentally knocked off their heads when they march underneath a low archway, do we? Those fellows look to me like a very stiff-necked group, and I don't believe that they would consider ducking their heads for a low archway. We simply must consider eventualities such as this, or we're all going to look very foolish! Well, first things first!" Having said all this, the Photographer determined that a width of five inches (see picture) would be a reasonable width for the archway. Go to top of page