Biography

Eric Lansdown was born in May 1952 in San Francisco, a city renowned for its artistic and cultural heritage. Raised by a family with a legacy of involvement in the arts, Eric spent his childhood years amid a vibrant artistic community. His mother, Carole Lansdown, worked in decorative arts and restoration, while his father, Frank Lansdown, was a painter. Eric’s grandfather, Clive Wiltshire, a builder and entrepreneur, played a crucial role in inspiring Eric’s career, having fostered his interest in building and craftsmanship from a young age. Generations of painters, actors, musicians, architects, and craftspeople across both sides of Eric’s family have had a profound influence on his life and work. Now, Eric’s two daughters, Jessica and Bianca, and his granddaughter, Melisse, have also grown up to be talented artists, continuing to be a source of inspiration for him.

_{The photo to the left shows Eric’s childhood home. 832 Castro St., San Francisco.}

Growing up in San Francisco, Eric lived in a traditional Queen Anne-style house on Castro Street. His grandfather, Clive Wiltshire, gave the initially dilapidated house to his mother in the 40s, who went on to transform it into a family home for Eric and his younger brother and sister, Gary and Christine. In the 60s, “Grandpa Clive” (pictured below) built a formidable woodworking shop in the backyard of the family home for the children. As a young boy, Eric would spend hours on end in the workshop, eager to experiment and learn the tricks of what would become his future trade.

_{Right: Clive Wilshire in his later life. Left: Clive in 1905 while a Canadian Royal Mounted Policeman.}

Eric’s father, Frank Lansdown was a decorative painter who also had a knack for woodworking. He built the children’s bunk beds with a spiral staircase, and also steamed and installed the new ribs for a dinghy boat, which they would take sailing. Often, when working on upscale painting for luxury properties, Frank would take the kids along to the beautiful houses owned by his clients.

_{Above: Eric and Christine on “The Shamrock” in Sausalito harbor, circa 1961.}

Eric’s father was a key figure who played a role in encouraging his son’s creativity, despite their complicated relationship. Eric learned his signature back brushing technique from his father, and still uses it to decorate dollhouse exteriors today.

_{Left: Frank Lansdown, 24, working as an actor in New York in 1938. Middle: Frank photographed before he was deployed to war in Burma. Right: Frank aged 40 living in Sausalito, California.}

Eric’s mother, Carole Lansdown supported the family by restoring antique decorative furniture and painting finishes in houses. She worked long hours in her studio located one street over from the family home. Carole grew up in western San Francisco, but moved to Tucson, Arizona, as a teenager to live with her aunt, Edith Hamlin, and uncle, Maynard Dixon, who were both well-established painters and muralists. The Ronstadt family was their neighbor, and teenage Carole babysat young Linda Ronstadt, introducing her to music during the time she spent with the family. From the age of 9 to 12, Eric spent summers with his great-aunt “Edie”, staying at her studio/ranch in Mount Carmel, Utah, where she spent much of her time painting.

_{Left: Edith Hamilton featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1926. Right: Edie” in her later life in San Francisco.}

As for Eric’s siblings, his brother, Gary, was a musician, and his sister, Christine, “Tina”, became a decorative artist, like her mother. Gary was sadly killed at the age of 19 in a fatal car accident while on his way to perform at a gig in Canada. He had trained as a classical guitarist – playing traditional, Segovian style, and had an affinity for the bluegrass genre. On several occasions, Gary played with renowned guitarist Jorge Santana, the brother of the iconic Carlos Santana.

Youth and Early Works

Eric’s very first passion was for boats and sailing ships. The love for boats can be traced back to when he was in the first grade, aged 5, and behind on his reading skills, until later that same year, he discovered the book Howard Chappell’s Complete Book of Wooden Boatbuilding. It fascinated him to the extent that he resolved to master reading as quickly as possible, to understand everything in the book.

His earliest surviving creations include a drawing of a fish’s skeleton, done on the back of a paper bag from a French bakery, along with a mobile titled “Fish, fisherman & boat”. Eric made these when he was 5, yet despite being the work of a young child, they were so convincing that Eric’s father decided to sell them to one of his clients for money. Eric rediscovered both of these works as they resurfaced in New York many years later.

_{Painting by Eric, aged 9. Depicts a fleet of sailing ships in the San Francisco bay that were left and abandoned during the Gold Rush.}

At the age of 11 to 13, while attending James Lick Junior High, Eric began taking metal and machine shop classes. At 13, he reverted to focusing on woodshop, his primary area of interest, and made use of school facilities to build a model lap-strake rowboat. As a result, he was offered a job at Aeolus boats in Davenport, California, at the age of 14. There, he built a prototype double-ended lap-strake rowing boat, which was subsequently manufactured by the company based on his original patterns. In 1965, Eric took over a derelict garage across from his family’s home on Castro Street and set up his own, independent boat repair enterprise there.

_{Top left: The first boat Eric ever built. Top middle: Eric, 13, standing next to his second boat. Top right: The Lapstrake model that Eric designed for Aeolus Boats.
Bottom: Eric, 14, in front of a double ended Lapstrake rowboat he built at Aeolus.}

By 1967, Eric planned to become a naval architect; however, he failed the entrance exams to the Lick-Wilmerding boys’ school for engineers due to poor spelling on the entrance exams. He was allowed to retake the test, as, despite spelling mistakes, he placed in the top 2% of applicants thanks to his already advanced knowledge of engineering. The second time, he performed similarly on the test but was once again denied entry because of his spelling. The system, which was very rigid at the time, has since evolved in favour of making allowances for young people who are more at home in the realm of practical skills, and who are often hindered by a conventional academic approach. Eric ended up having to attend Mission High, a public high school in San Francisco, which was far from ideal since at the time it had a bad reputation for being a hotbed for drugs and juvenile delinquency.

_{Antique cars once owned and restored by Eric.}

Eric spent most of his time at Mission High taking machine shop classes. He attended night school to fit in additional hours and completed all the mechanical drawing studies that Mission High had to offer in one semester. The quick completion was no surprise considering he had already studied boat design and was tutored by naval architects in Sausalito, where his father lived on a houseboat.

At the age of 16, Eric applied for his driving license and shifted his focus from boats to antique cars and trucks. He began taking auto shop classes and made new parts for his old truck, the DOANE, which was constructed from raw materials – highly technical work that provided Eric with good practical experience. Once Eric had given it a new life, the DOANE was a real objet d’art. Eric donated it to the Salvation Army, who had requested to use it to carry their brass band during parades that took place over the Christmas season.

After graduating, Eric continued to restore antique cars for a year. He used some of the money from this venture to buy a large truck to support his new family.  He now had two daughters, Jessica and Bianca, with his partner, Victoria, “Tory”, who relied upon him for a steady source of income, which meant he had to get serious about his financial prospects. The family moved to a storefront on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, while Eric got a job working for demolition companies, driving big trucks and heavy machinery.

The Beginning of the Dollhouse Chapter and Construction of the Dollhouse Ship

Eric’s life adventure took a new and unexpected turn after high school, going from a well-paid heavy equipment operator and demolition man to purchasing a sunken ship and starting his dollhouse empire.

While Eric was a skilled equipment operator, work was slow during the winter, and this downtime inspired Eric to build his first commercial dollhouse. The need to pay rent, put food on the table, and hopefully have enough left over to afford a Christmas tree for his children was the original motivation for his career shift.

Eric made his first commercial dollhouse in the winter of 1973, a little Queen Anne-style Victorian San Franciscan house – not dissimilar from the one he grew up in – made from a fish box from Chinatown. The light blue and white house had carved wood ornaments, colored glass, and intricate hand-painted details. Eric sold the house to Lillian Williams Antiques on Montgomery Street, a prestigious French antiques dealer and a previous client of Eric’s mother. Lillian Williams went on to become Eric’s first birdcage client, ordering a commission which was a duplicate of a historic French antique birdcage. However, since Eric is always predisposed to originality, in the commission, he took the risk of making slight alterations to the design, incorporating his own additional details and personal touches. Fortunately, Lillian approved and was so impressed with his work that she promised to buy whatever he could produce from then on. Eric’s cages became a permanent feature in the window display of her shop on Montgomery Street. Soon, it became clear to Eric that life as an artist was much more gratifying than working as a demolition man. Consequently, he resigned from the demolition company and decided to pursue a career making dollhouses and bird cages full-time.

Eric’s first commission was a copy of a French antique bird cage. However, since Eric has always been predisposed to originality, he took the risk of making slight alterations to the design, incorporating his own additional details and personal touches. Fortunately, Lillian Williams approved and was so impressed with his work that she promised to buy whatever he could produce from then on. Eric’s cages became a permanent feature in the window display of her shop on Montgomery St. It soon became clear to Eric that life as an artist much more gratifying than working as a demolition man. Consequently, he resigned from the demolition company and decided to pursue a career making dollhouses and bird cages.

As luck would have it, it was around this time that Eric came across a sunken 90-foot fishing boat in the Anderson & Cristofani boatyard in San Francisco, and decided to undertake a master plan to transform an otherwise unsightly ship into a houseboat/studio. Since the boat had already been underwater for a year, Eric was able to buy it for quite cheap. With help from workers at the boatyard and several friends who came along to help, they hauled the boat out from under the water and towed it to its new home at Pier 42 on the San Francisco waterfront.

Due to the ship’s poor, rotting condition, the pier owner threatened to evict Eric and the boat almost immediately. Thankfully, Eric managed to rally his friends to come to his aid once again, and together they cleaned and repainted the boat the following weekend. Hauling out fire hoses, barrels of paint, copious amounts of plaster and papier-mâché, they renovated the ship from top to waterline in just two days.

_{The photo to the left shows the boat in 1978. It is the earliest surviving photograph of Eric’s floating studio, and you can just about see him in the cabin working on a birdcage.}

By 1977, Eric was living on the boat and building his dollhouses and bird cages. By 1979, news of the dollhouse artist living aboard a fishing boat at pier 42 got out to journalists who latched onto the rather picturesque story. Initially, Eric’s studio was situated inside the boat’s old cabin area; however, realising he needed more space, it was relocated to the rear deck which was then installed with a tent roof. By 1980, Eric had built a solid roof over the studio and the old fishing almost resembled a proper houseboat, one filled with sawdust and dollhouses nonetheless.

Hunters Point Shipyard and Expansion of the Business

Eric’s work became increasingly popular throughout the 1980s, acquiring write-ups in publications and features in shop windows across San Francisco.

By the early 1980s, Eric’s business had expanded, and he found the need to re-settle back on land with a larger workshop. He settled in Hunters Point shipyard, which housed an extensive collection of artist studios and independent studios. It was here that Eric was able to scale the production of his dollhouses and start the next phase of production with the help of a small team, usually 4-5 people working alongside him at a time.

In the following years, Eric’s work was featured in multiple prestigious publications, including Architectural Digest and The New York Times, which led to large contracts with high-end retailers and catalog companies. At this time, he also worked with two agents who represented him and sold his work at trade shows. However, after trying this approach for a short while, Eric decided he was better off managing his business independently.

_{Top Left: Eric and his daughter Jessica painting a television cabinet Top Left: Alan Farmer painting a Hacienda dollhouse.
Bottom Left: Eric working on a Gothic Octagon Dollhouse in his studio at the Hunters Point shipyard. Bottom Middle: Tom Skinner working on Regency bird cage roofs. BottomRight: A Line of Chateau dollhouses painted white in mid-production in Eric’s new expanded space.}

During the mid-1980s, Eric began attending trade shows worldwide, primarily in New York and other major metropolitan art hubs, including Paris and Frankfurt. The 80s were a time when the business side of the art world was really beginning to take off; New York emerged as the major site for art retailing and thus became Eric’s principal show venue. Eric created some inspired pieces that he would sell to retailers during this time, but soon found that his genuine pride and pleasure was in making dollhouses directly for consumers, rather than selling to big business. Due to the shifting model, Eric was slowly becoming disenchanted with dollhouse production, despite it being one of his true passions.

_{Above: A chateau dollhouse before and after its final completion.}

A New Life in France

During the early 1990s, Eric explored the entirety of Southwestern France in search of the perfect place to lay his roots. In 1994, he bought a large, dilapidated old house in Roujan, near Béziers. Until then, Eric had been dividing his time between France and his hometown of San Francisco, but in 1995, he made the big move over to France for good. He paused the dollhouse business, devoting all his time to renovating the house in Roujan and building holiday apartments that would accommodate travelers and guests.

Eric’s holiday apartments were a similar concept to today’s Airbnb – at that time in France, they were known as ‘gites’. He had a website to manage rentals that functioned via the French network ‘Minitel’, which many were still using before the nationwide takeover of the internet. The main draw of the apartments was their beautiful, stylised interior decor, primarily designed by Eric’s daughter, Jessica Lansdown. The gites were carefully curated with antique furniture and fabrics, embroidered cushions and bedspreads, and the walls were adorned in delicate, hand-painted detailing. A couple who were visiting from San Francisco once described it as thoroughly “felliniesque”.

In the late 1990s, Eric initiated a work exchange program to undertake further renovations on the house and its neighboring buildings.

The Brewery Chapter

Eric had always been fascinated by traditional French châteaux; it was his great dream to own one. There were a great number of them that remained uninhabited in and around where he was living in the Hérault district of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The abandoned châteaux were markers of what had once been large estates. For several years, Eric tried to find an economic solution that could support the old châteaux buildings. He finally settled on the idea of installing a brewery in one of the old winery buildings that almost all of the châteaux in the region disposed of. After a lengthy campaign, he eventually secured the support of several investors but decided to have a mobile brewery. Eric started and operated a microbrewery (7000 HL/ annual capacity), La Croix du Sud, from 2000 to 2014, serving local bars and festivals in Southwest France.