Patsy and Don Wilson have spent 50 years passionately collecting a broad array of things, a virtual gold mine of eclectic collectibles. It all started back in the 60’s. Donny is an architect, and was introduced to fine art by Willie Pena and the culture at CRS Architects (A firm that grew to be the largest architecture firm in the world and the first to ever go public on the New York Stock Exchange). He later started Design Fabricators Inc. (an architectural, general contracting firm, and a cabinet shop for cabinetry and furniture). As a general contracting company, virtually all the building projects were designed by or for well known and published architects in the Houston area. A summer home was designed by Design Fabricators architectural firm for King Faisal in Saudi Arabia.
It wasn’t long before collecting and acquiring art and antiques , and the love of the hunt became a passion. Patsy started looking for German silver purses as Donny began scouring antique shops in far reaching corners of the Unites States, Mexico and Central America for religious artifacts and crucifixions. In the 1970s, Donny began collecting Model “A” Fords; and after four of them, started to acquire new old stock (NOS) parts. The parts expanded to road art and memorabilia related to antique and classic cars, and that led to the myriad of unique tools that were used in fabricating and maintaining these cars.
The collecting didn’t stop there. In the 1980s, Patsy began to pursue her dream to own a dollhouse shop, and then fell head over heels into a business, the Little House (on Mapleridge), which she successfully ran in Houston for 22 years. They both began creating exquisite dolls houses, many published in the national miniature magazines, and Donny brought his craftsmanship and attention to detail to the creation of both miniature furniture and the houses themselves. Their work was judged and they were awarded artisan-ship in structures and interior design in the International Guild of Miniature Artisans.
After fifty years of acquiring, the collection includes hundreds of exquisite and investment grade dolls, fine art, auto memorabilia and road art, Model A Ford parts and KR Wilson tools, pedal cars, boats, planes and tin toys, early 1900 purses, razors, music boxes, juke boxes, smoking stands, ice cream scoops, and at least a few of just about anything you can imagine.
A “Flying Switch” is a railroad term. It describes the procedure where the main locomotive decouples from its cars under way. As the locomotive pulls away from its rail cars, the tracks are switched on the fly to redirect the following cars onto a side spur under their own momentum.
Well, Patsy and Donny are still locomoting, but they have switched to the fun of selling. While they are still no stranger to acquiring the occasional example of whimsey, their focus now is promoting much of their collection to find new homes where the splendor of these items can continue to be enjoyed by generations to come.
This website features only a portion of the items in their collections. So check back often as the catalog is continually updating. And if you don’t see anything you like, feel free to reach out as we probably have one of whatever it is in a box.
