Queen Mary's Dolls' House (east side): ground-floor dining room, first-floor saloon and top-floor housekeeper's suite; bottom left: strongroom (above the butler's pantry)
Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a dolls' house built in the early 1920s, completed in 1924, as a gift for Queen Mary (the consort of King George V). It was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with contributions from many notable artists and craftsmen of the period, and includes a library of miniature books containing original stories written by authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and A. A. Milne. Since 1925 it has been on public display in Windsor Castle (at Windsor, Berkshire, in England).
The idea for building the dolls' house originally came from Queen Mary's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, who discussed her idea with one of the top architects of the time, Sir Edwin Lutyens, at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1921. Sir Edwin agreed to construct the dolls' house and began preparations. Princess Marie Louise had many connections in the arts and wrote around two thousand letters (by hand) to top artists and craftsmen of the time, asking them to contribute their special abilities to the house. It was created as a gift to Queen Mary from the people, and to serve as a historical document on how a royal family might have lived during that period in England. In spite of its name, the dolls' house is without dolls (except for a pipe major and five guardsmen to man the sentry boxes).[1]
The dolls' house showcased the very finest and most modern goods of the period. Later it was put on display to raise funds for Queen Mary's charities. It was originally exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924–1925, where more than 1.6million people came to view it;[2] it was also exhibited at the 1925 Ideal Home Exhibition, after which it was placed on display in Windsor Castle, where it remains (visitors were charged 6d entry, which was passed on to the queen's charitable fund).[3]
The interior of the display room in the castle, where it is located, was also designed by Lutyens (it had formerly been a china room); the room is decorated with architectural motifs and with murals by Philip Connard. The glass cabinet which surrounds the house was provided by Pilkington for the Ideal Home Exhibition display and subsequently donated.[3]
Description
A medicine chest from the dollhouse, shown next to a 17-millimetre (0.67in)halfpenny
The dolls' house was made to a scale of 1:12 (one inch to one foot), is over three feet tall, and contains models of products of well-known companies of the time (many of them made and donated by the companies themselves). The neo-classical exterior is made of wood, painted to resemble Portland stone; it has sliding sash windows and is roofed with miniature Welsh slates. An electric mechanism hidden in the roof serves to raise and lower the external shell of the house, so as to reveal the interior.[4]
The house is remarkable for its detail and the detail of the objects within it, all of which are 1⁄12-sized replicas of royal or household items. Some of the furnishings are scaled reproductions of original pieces in Windsor Castle (or other stately homes); others were designed by Lutyens himself (or other contributors to the project). Many items were made and donated by manufacturers; others were recreated by specialist modelmakers (such as Twining Models of Northampton, England). Over 750 miniature works of art were given by contemporary artists.[5]
The carpets, curtains and furnishings are all copies of the real thing; many of the doors, cupboards and cabinets have functioning locks; and the house has working electric lights and bells. The bathrooms are fully plumbed with piped, running water, and include a flushable toilet with miniature lavatory paper.[6] Two fully-functioning Otis lifts are provided (a passenger lift, serving the three principal floors, and a service lift, serving the mezzanines in addition). Other items in the house include Purdey shotguns that "break and load", monogrammed linens, three Chubb safes (in the library, strongroom and queen's wardrobe), seven functioning clocks by Cartier and a garage of cars with operational engines. The Gramophone Company provided a working wind-up gramophone, with a playable set of His Master's Voice records;[7] and Broadwood provided two pianos (one grand, one upright), "real pianofortes, with sound-board, cast steel frame, strings and hammers complete".[8] Even the bottles in the wine cellar were filled with the appropriate wines and spirits, and the wheels of motor vehicles were properly spoked.[9] Queen Mary's purchases brought media attention to specialist furnishers such as Dorothy Rogers, who created needlework miniature carpets for the house.
The west side of the house: the king's apartment is on the piano nobile (above the ground-floor library and the garage in the basement); on the top floor is the princess royal's bedroom, the queen's sitting room, the night nursery and the nursery bathroom. There is also a pair of servants' rooms at the upper mezzanine level.
The house consists of three main storeys above a basement. There are also two mezzanine levels in the house (an "upper mezzanine" over the first floor and a "lower mezzanine" over the ground floor). Beneath the basement, the house stands on a plinth (part of Lutyens' design) which contains drawers designed to accommodate dolls.[19]
North side
The main entrance of the house is on the north side. The interior is dominated by the principal staircase, which ascends from the entrance hall on the ground floor to a double-height upper hall above (which is a perfect cube).[20] Lobbies on either side connect with spaces behind, which provide access to the other rooms of the house on each level, via a service staircase (on the east side) and the passenger lift (on the west side).[21] Next to the passenger lift is a sports cupboard, containing golf clubs, tennis rackets, archery equipment and a croquet set.[22]
At basement level on the north side is a utility room (for the workings of the doll's house) containing a water tank, a transformer with electrical switch gear, and the base of the lift shafts.[24]
East side
King George V
Queen Mary
Portraits by Sir William Orpen for the saloon
The east side of the house contains the principal public rooms, overlooking the garden (which emerges from a drawer at basement level below). The dining room on the ground floor has a table set for eighteen (with a silver dinner service by Garrard and Webb's crystal glasses). The room is lined with paintings by various artists, including Sir Alfred Munnings, Ambrose McEvoy, W. B. E. Ranken and Captain Pearse. The painted ceiling is by Gerald Moira and the carpet hand-made by Ernest Thesiger.[25] The southernmost bay of the ground floor is occupied by the butler's pantry, with a strongroom above it (on the lower mezzanine floor), accessed from the butler's bedroom. The pantry has cupboards containing multiple sets of Doulton china (an eighteen-piece dinner service and six-piece dinner, breakfast and coffee services, as well as separate sets for the kitchen and nursery). The plate is stored in the strongroom, where there is a functioning Chubb safe and a suitably-scaled display of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.[26]
The top floor is occupied by the housekeeper's suite: a large central linen room (with a modern electric iron and a Singer sewing machine) flanked by the housekeeper's bedroom and bathroom.[22] To the rear, the housemaids' closet is provided with a Hoover vacuum cleaner and an array of miniature cleaning materials.
At basement level there is a hidden garden, revealed only when a vast drawer is pulled out from beneath the main building. Designed by Gertrude Jekyll,[28][pageneeded] it includes replicas of greenery and garden implements and follows a traditional ornamental garden theme. An Atco mowing machine is provided.[29]
South side
South side of the house: close-up of the queen's bedroom (above) and the kitchen (below)
The ground floor is dominated by the kitchen, flanked by the servery to the east (which adjoins the butler's pantry and the dining room) and the scullery to the west. The kitchen has tiled walls and a woodblock floor, and is equipped with a coal-fired range; at its centre is a large oak table, and there are numerous pots and pans and other utensils, including a mincing machine, weighing scales and a coffee grinder.[30] There is also a cat, as well as three mice in a humane mousetrap. The scullery has lead-lined sinks with wooden plate-racks and a refrigerator; the servery is provided with a hotplate (and a Minimax fire extinguisher).[31]
The queen's apartment occupies the first floor (the principal room being the queen's bedroom, in the centre, which is flanked by her wardrobe to the east and bathroom to the west). The bedroom ceiling is painted by Glyn Philpot, those in the wardrobe and bathroom are by Robert Anning Bell and Maurice Greiffenhagen respectively.[32] Above the fireplace is a painting of the Duchess of Teck by Frank Salisbury. The walls are hung with blue silk damask and there is a tall Queen Anne style four-poster bed.
The top floor is dominated by the day nursery, containing numerous toys, including a train set, a model theatre and tin soldiers. It has wall paintings depicting fairy tales, by Edmund Dulac. The adjacent lobbies have cupboards containing a Wedgwood breakfast service and medical supplies, among other items; there are also tins of Fry's cocoa, and biscuits by Huntley & Palmers and McVitie & Price.[33]
At basement level, beneath the kitchen, is the wine cellar and storage rooms for other foodstuffs and provisions.
West side
West side of the house: close-up of the king's bedroom (above) and the library (below)
The wood-lined library occupies the whole width of the house on the west side. There is a walnut desk in the centre, with note paper, envelopes and invitation cards, and on either side two folio cabinets, which between them contain seven hundred watercolours, prints and drawings by artists of the day.[34] The library also contains a gun cabinet, a cabinet for the king's dispatch boxes, and numerous other items including newspapers, periodicals, cigars, pipes, fencing foils, a chess set and a card table (with packs of cards to scale).[35] There is also a wireless (by British Thomson-Houston) hidden in a cabinet. The painted ceiling is by William Walcot and there are portraits of Tudor monarchs by Nicholson, Frank Reynolds and Sir Arthur Cope.[35]
On the first floor is the king's apartment, which (like the queen's) consists of a wardrobe and bathroom either side of a central bedroom. The walls and ceiling of the bedroom are painted by George Plank; it too is furnished with a four-poster bed. The wardrobe has a painted ceiling by Wilfrid de Glehn; that in the bathroom is by Laurence Irving, and on the walls are miniature Punch cartoons.[36] The wardrobe contains walking sticks by Brigg & Sons and a field marshal's sword by Wilkinson; in the bathroom are Addis toothbrushes and numerous other items.
On the top floor is the queen's sitting room (a small room furnished with Chinoiserie and with walls painted by Dulac); it has a child's room (the princess royal's room) on one side and the night nursery (and nursery bathroom) on the other.[37]
The garage, hidden in a basement-level drawer beneath the library, contains six miniature motor cars, each contributed by their manufacturer: two Daimlers (a state landaulet and a station bus), a Rolls-Royce limousine, a Vauxhall saloon car, a Sunbeam open touring car and a Lanchester limousine, as well as a Rudge-Whitworth motorcycle (with sidecar) and bicycle. The State Daimler has coachwork by Barker & Co., and all the cars are painted in the royal claret and black livery.[38]
Reproductions
The ceramics company Cauldon China produced a Parian ware box modelled on the house, measuring 9.5×15cm, and 12.5cm high, at around the time of the 1924 exhibition.[39] A version was also produced with the exhibition's crest applied as a colour transfer, in the manner of crested ware.[40] Some of the proceeds were donated to Queen Mary's charities.[39]
↑The contents of the library were published in normal format in E. V. Lucas, ed., The Book of the Queen's Dolls' House Library (London: Methuen, 1924).
↑Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasury of Royal Scandals. New York: Penguin Books. p.47. ISBN0-7394-2025-9.
↑Siegfried Sassoon reported that on 6 June 1922 Elgar told Lady Maud Warrender: "We all know that the King and Queen are incapable of appreciating anything artistic; they have never asked for the full score of my Second Symphony to be added to the Library at Windsor. But as the crown of my career I'm asked to contribute to a Doll's House for the Queen! I've been a monkey-on-a-stick for you people long enough. Now I'm getting off the stick. I wrote and said that I hoped they wouldn't have the impertinence to press the matter on me any further. I consider it an insult for an artist to be asked to mix himself up in such nonsense." (Kennedy, Michael [1982]. Portrait of Elgar. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press. p. 305.)
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