MARVEL IN MINIATURE
The centenary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is being marked at Windsor Castle this year. Claire Saul reports
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, the world’s largest and most famous doll’s house. Created between 1921 and 1924 as a gift from the nation to Queen Mary after World War One, the house is a perfect 1:12 scale replica of an Edwardian-style residence.
This is no ordinary doll’s house. The idea of Queen Mary’s childhood friend and cousin Princess Marie Louise, it was designed by renowned architect Edwin Lutyens and decorated and dressed with contributions from more than 1,500 of the nation’s finest artists, craftspeople, and manufacturers of the day, among them Doulton, Rolls-royce and Cartier. It has electricity, working lifts and running water. The attention to detail is extraordinary – the clocks can keep time, its gramophone works and the bottles in its cellar contain wines and beers.
After being presented to Queen Mary in 1924, the doll’s house was exhibited at Wembley and Olympia before being taken to Windsor Castle in 1925. Since then, it has been enjoyed by generations of visitors in the Lutyens-designed display room created for it. The room features murals by the decorative landscape artist Philip Connard together with the artists Dorothy Cohen and Winifred Hardman, which have been expertly restored and relit for this year’s anniversary, allowing visitors to better appreciate the scenes of elegantly dressed figures in the grounds of royal residences.
The doll’s house itself has been relit to simulate daylight rather than moonlight and the room’s ornate corner niches have been restored and filled with miniature plants and flowers, which were originally created as part of a seasonal scheme for the house’s garden. On the Royal Collection Trust’s website, new “doll’seye view” films allow viewers to discover the house’s marvels in closer detail than ever before.
Meanwhile, a special exhibition is being staged in the castle’s magnificent Waterloo Chamber, throwing a spotlight on a selection of doll’s house items and allowing visitors to better appreciate these tiny treasures. These include a fully strung miniature grand piano with functioning keys and a set of crown jewels inset with real diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and seed pearls. Items representing some of the house’s “below stairs” spaces include a miniscule vacuum cleaner, a relatively new innovation in the 1920s, a sewing machine complete with thread and minuscule scissors that can actually cut, and a copper kettle made from a coin – King George V’s head is visible on its base.
Celebratory events and activities for castle visitors this year include doll’s house-themed activities and a family trail. During an online evening event this month, Royal Collection Trust curators will highlight behind-thescenes details and share some of their conservation stories. A series of courses in collaboration with the Royal School of Needlework will include a private tour of the doll’s house and hand-embroidery workshops inspired by the intricate motifs found on upholstery throughout the house.
Royal School of Needlework patron Queen Camilla is also well known for her love of reading, and she is
involved in multiple reading and literacy schemes throughout the UK and the Commonwealth. One of the great treasures of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is its library, which captured the literary culture of the 1920s through miniature books handwritten by the era’s foremost writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Vita Sackvillewest, Thomas Hardy and even AA Milne. Earlier this year, in recognition of the centenary celebrations, the queen officially launched a modern-day miniature library, comprising 20 tiny manuscripts. These have been penned and decorated by hand by leading writers and illustrators, representing a snapshot of contemporary British literature through short stories, poetry collections, illustrated tales, plays, articles and recipes, many of which are inspired by the doll’s house or written specially for the occasion.
Each 4½cm-high manuscript has been hand-bound with a unique cover by a leading designer bookbinder, featuring a design inspired by the contents of the book. Camilla has contributed her own miniature book to the collection: a handwritten introduction to the modern-day miniature library project. Included among the other contributors are Alan Bennett, Sarah Waters, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Hardman, Charlie Mackesy, Sir Ben Okri, and Sir Tom Stoppard.
“For me, it is the library that is the most breath-taking space in the house,” Camilla said. “These new books highlight the incredible richness of 21st century literary talent – and demonstrate how fortunate we are to have access to so many outstanding writers, whose work brings joy, comfort, laughter, companionship and hope to us all, opening our eyes to others’ experiences and reminding us that we are not alone.”