![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stairs-cooper-hewitt-designboom-04.jpg\")
spiral staircase model in English style, late 19th century | all images gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw<\/p>\n
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The Eugene & Clare Thaw Gift to the institution<\/p>\n
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The Thaw couple was introduced to the concept of a staircase model after seeing one, displayed like a statuette, in a friend\u2019s home. In a 2006 interview, presented in the exhibition brochure<\/a>, Eugene Thaw speaks to Sarah D. Coffin, former curator and head, Product Design and Decorative Arts, at Cooper Hewitt<\/a>, about the beauty he saw in that first model. As he and his wife went on collecting\u2014asking friends to be on the look out and obtaining them at auction\u2014he mentioned that he learned more about why they were made and rendered so valuable. He says, \u2018they were pi\u00e8ces de ma\u00eetrise, or masterworks, which were made as part of becoming a master and being accepted into a guild.\u2019<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Artistic and architectural reference<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In gifting their collection to Cooper Hewitt, they made available to the public the mastery that went behind each of these models. Not only are they a useful reference for architects looking to model a structure to scale, but they are also fascinating aesthetically. They are reminiscent of children\u2019s dollhouses, albeit very luxurious ones crafted from oak and other fine woods instead of particle board. There\u2019s a certain imagination that emerges from seeing things in miniature, as if they were extracted from another, much smaller world.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The architectural precedent for modeled stairs<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For those who went to architecture school, building a model staircase is a typical part of the curriculum, as it encapsulates, in many of its aspects, the intricacies of building space around the human form. Because a staircase is used as a tool, it must fit the proportions of the feet, its handrail must land at a comfortable height, and it should be angled in a way that efficiently brings someone from one floor to another. Hand-drafting one is a notoriously difficult task for similar reasons. At smaller scales, these models allow one to see a staircase in its entirety and appreciate all it is able to achieve technically while still providing a little aesthetic flair with a spiral, helix, or material innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Hewitt\u2019s tiny Staircase Masterpieces \u00a0 In 2006, Cooper Hewitt put a collection of staircases on display that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,36689,3018,61,60,249273],"class_list":["post-608693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibition-design","tag-furniture","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-modes-of-habitation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stairs-cooper-hewitt-designboom-02.jpg\")
staircase model with low curved double stringboard, mid\u2013late 19th century<\/p>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stairs-cooper-hewitt-designboom-03.jpg\")
semi-circular staircase model, mid\u2013late 19th century<\/p>\n