Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a doll's house built in the early 1920s, completed in 1924, for the British queen Mary of Teck. It was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with contributions from many notable artists and craftsmen of the period, including a library of miniature books containing original stories written by authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and A. A. Milne.
The idea for building the doll's 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 dollhouse and began preparations. Princess Marie Louise had many connections in the arts and arranged for the top artists and craftsmen of the time 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 It was created as a gift to Queen Mary from the people, and to serve as a historical document on how a royal family might have lived during that period in England.
It showcased the very finest and most modern goods of the period. Later the doll's house was put on display to raise funds for the Queen's charities. It was originally exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924–1925, where more than 1.6 million people came to view it, [1] and is now on display in Windsor Castle, at Windsor, Berkshire, England, as a tourist attraction.
The doll's 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. 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. [2]
The house is remarkable for its detail and the detail of the objects within it, many of which are 1⁄12-sized replicas of items in Windsor Castle. These were either made by the companies themselves, or by specialist modelmakers, such as Twining Models of Northampton, England. 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. [3] Other items in the house include Purdey shotguns that "break and load", monogrammed linens, two Otis lifts (one for passengers, one for luggage), seven functioning clocks by Cartier and a garage of cars with operational engines. The Gramophone Company provided a functioning wind-up gramophone, with a set of His Master's Voice records; [4] and Broadwood provided two pianos (one grand, one upright), 'real pianofortes, with sound-board, cast steel frame, strings and hammers complete'. [5] Even the bottles in the wine cellar were filled with the appropriate wines and spirits, and the wheels of motor vehicles were properly spoked. [6] Queen Mary's purchases brought media attention to specialist furnishers such as Dorothy Rogers, who created needlework miniature carpets for the house.
In addition, well-known writers wrote special books for the house's library, which were bound in scale size by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contributed the short story "How Watson Learned the Trick", and the ghost-story writer M. R. James wrote "The Haunted Dolls' House". A. A. Milne contributed "Vespers". Other authors included J. M. Barrie, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling and W. Somerset Maugham. [7] (George Bernard Shaw rebuffed the princess's request for a tiny volume of his work. [8] ) In total the library contains works by 171 authors; there are also miniature reproductions of older works, including three Bibles and a copy of the Koran. [9] Composers who contributed miniature works for the house included Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, Arthur Bliss, John Ireland and Arnold Bax, [10] although Sir Edward Elgar refused to contribute. [11]
Painters, including Eli Marsden Wilson, Edith Mary Hinchley, Gladys Kathleen Bell and Christopher Adams, [12] also provided miniature pictures for the library. Two pen-and-ink drawings by G. Howell-Baker were supplied by his sister, who wrote to say that he had recently died when the request for his contribution arrived from the palace. [13] [14]
The house is formed of three main storeys above a basement. There are also two mezzanine levels in the house (the upper mezzanine on the first floor and the lower mezzanine on the ground floor). Beneath the basement, the house stands on a plinth (part of Lutyens' design) which contains drawers designed to accommodate dolls. [15]
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). [16] 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). [17] Next to the passenger lift is a sports cupboard, containing golf clubs, tennis rackets, archery equipment and a croquet set. [18]
The entrance hall includes a bronze Venus by Francis Derwent Wood and a painting of Windsor Castle by Sir David Young Cameron. There is also a table with a visitors' book and a chair for the porter (with a copy of the Daily Mail ). [19] The upper hall is decorated with murals by Sir William Nicholson, and busts by C. S. Jagger and Sir William Goscombe John. [16]
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. [20]
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. [21] 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 (it is also equipped with a Minimax fire extinguisher). The plate is stored in the strongroom, where there is a functioning Chubb safe and a scaled-down display of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. [22]
The entire width of the first-floor is occupied by the saloon, the house's main reception room; the ceiling is painted by Charles Sims. Furnishings include a pair of gilded thrones, a Broadwood grand piano (with casework painted by T. M. Rooke) and a lacquer cabinet (given by the Marchioness of Londonderry) copied from a full-size original in Londonderry House. The room is decorated with royal portraits by Sir William Orpen, Sir John Lavery and Harrington Mann, with landscapes by Adrian Stokes and overdoors by Lady Patricia Ramsay. [23]
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. [18]
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, [24] [ page needed ] it includes replicas of greenery and garden implements and follows a traditional ornamental garden theme.
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. There are numerous utensils and 1920s gadgets, including a mincing machine, a coffee grinder and a miniature vacuum cleaner (provided by the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company). [25] Beneath the kitchen is the wine cellar, and storage rooms for other foodstuffs and provisions.
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. [26] 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 supplies of Fry's cocoa, and biscuits by Huntley & Palmers and McVitie & Price. [27]
The wood-lined library occupies the whole width of the house on the west side. As well as original works, the library contains reference books and other works reproduced using microphotography. [28] 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. [29] 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). [30] 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. [30]
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. [31] 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. [32]
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., painted in the royal claret and black livery. [33]
The ceramics company Cauldon China produced a Parian ware box modelled on the house, measuring 9.5×15 cm, and 12.5 cm high, at around the time of the 1924 exhibition. [34] A version was also produced with the exhibition's crest applied as a colour transfer, in the manner of crested ware. [35] Some of the proceeds were donated to Queen Mary's charities. [34]
In 2024, twenty new manuscripts were added to the house's library as part of the anniversary project headed by Queen Camilla to reflect Britain's modern literature. Sebastian Faulks, Bernardine Evaristo, Elif Shafak, Malorie Blackman, Alan Bennett, Julia Donaldson, Anthony Horowitz, Tom Stoppard, A. N. Wilson, Jacqueline Wilson, Philippa Gregory, Simon Armitage, Ben Okri, Joseph Coelho and Tom Parker Bowles were among the authors who contributed. [36] [37]
