Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House

Visitors travel from across the world to visit Windsor Castle but it is the 100-year-old Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House that is the surprise showstopper – an unrivalled archive of the artistic Edwardian life.

Queen Mary's Dolls’ House is the largest and most famous dolls’ house in the world but just like any 100-year-old property, it needs ongoing care and the occasional update.

To mark the centenary, the dolls’ house, which runs the full length of the ground floor, has been refreshed with 21^st century miniature books. The new books now sit alongside the original 588 works including the complete works of Shakespeare, the Bible, the Koran and novels by Thomas Hardy, Sir Arthur Conan, A.A. Milne and Vita Sackville-West in the 4cm pages.

This project was championed by HM Queen Camilla and the 20 new books include The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler; A Tiny Ghost Story by Anthony Horowitz and Alan Bennett’s The Mantelpiece. Sebastian Faulks has written Music for a Dolls’ House and Tom Stoppard, Kolya’s Glove. Other contributors include AN Wilson, Jacqueline Wilson, Philippa Gregory and Simon Armitage. The Queen’s offering is titled A Recipe Fit for a Queen.

On Their Majesties website royal.uk, Queen Camilla says the dolls’ house “continued to enchant generations of children and adults who still came to marvel at its perfect proportions, extraordinary attention to detail and, perhaps above all, the artistic genius apparent in every room.”

This project was championed by HM Queen Camilla and the 20 new books include The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler; A Tiny Ghost Story by Anthony Horowitz and Alan Bennett’s The Mantelpiece. Sebastian Faulks has written Music for a Dolls’ House and Tom Stoppard, Kolya’s Glove. Other contributors include AN Wilson, Jacqueline Wilson, Philippa Gregory and Simon Armitage. The Queen’s offering is titled A Recipe Fit for a Queen. On Their Majesties website royal.uk, Queen Camilla says the dolls’ house “continued to enchant generations of children and adults who still came to marvel at its perfect proportions, extraordinary attention to detail and, perhaps above all, the artistic genius apparent in every room.” Queen Camilla adds: “For me, it is the library that is the most breath-taking space in the house. It was curated by Princess Marie Louise and her friend, the author EV Lucas, who invited 200 renowned writers to contribute pieces of writing, providing an unrivalled snapshot of literature in the 1920s. “I am delighted and grateful that, thanks to the kindness of some of today’s brilliant authors and binders, we are now able to add a snapshot of literature in the 2020s to the dolls’ house library.”

A gift from the nation

The dolls’ house was the idea of Princess Marie Louise, cousin to King George V and childhood friend of Queen Mary. She decided that the Queen would enjoy the house and it was created for her in the years after the First World War.

The princess and her friend, architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, created a committee to decide on the style of the dolls’ house and ensured its contents were of the highest possible quality and all perfectly to scale while the cost and labour was divided between as many people as possible – a gift from the nation that was as true to life as possible, recreating every facet of modern-day life from the 1920s.

Between 1921 and 1924, 1,500 of the UK top craftsmen, artists and manufacturers created a 1:12 snapshot of an aristocratic Edwardian residence and the dolls’ house went on display at the Empire Exhibition in 1924 as a showcase for British workmanship, including many royal warrant holders.

Since 1925 it has been housed at Windsor Castle in 1925, delighting visitors who are fascinated to see the dolls’ house complete with electricity, working lifts and running water as well as a stocked wine cellar, tiny vases of flowers in bedroom suites, a sewing machine with thread and a newly invented Hoover vacuum cleaner.

Every detail was recreated; the joints in the furniture are dovetailed, the sheets embroidered with the royal cipher, the chairs upholstered and the beds sprung. Princess Marie Louise said that the only thing that was not reproduced in miniature was a telephone.

The house is operated by a mechanism in the basement which lifts up to reveal the house within including bedroom suites, a day nursery, a grand salon with red velvet and silver thrones and a sweeping staircase in an impressive marble-style entrance hall.

Princess Marie Louise and Sir Edwin Lutyens also approached many artists and composers to contribute more than 700 watercolours, prints and etchings plus 24 miniature music scores.

A garage comes complete with seven model cars and a motorcycle while the garden is designed by Gertrude Jekyll. 

Book tickets to Windsor Castle at rct.uk

New book celebrates Dolls’ House library

To mark the centenary, the Royal Collection Trust has published ‘The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House’ by Elizabeth Clark Ashby, it is the first book to explore the creation and contents of the miniature Library. First chapters chart the creation of the dolls’ house and formation of its library, featuring correspondence between Princess Marie Louise and the House’s architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, and the authors they commissioned. This is the first time these letters have been fully researched and presented to the public. The book also provides a unique insight into the care taken by those who handwrote and illustrated the postage-stamp-sized pages. Newly investigated correspondence reveals some authors, such as Thomas Hardy, found the miniature nature of the work to be insurmountable, meaning calligraphers were enlisted. The publication also explores the collections of prints, drawings and music as well as newspapers and magazines produced for the dolls’ house, including railway timetables, a copy of The Times and an atlas. Many of the original miniature watercolours by British artists are also published including landscapes by the First World War artists Paul Nash and John Northcote Nash.

The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House by Elizabeth Clark Ashby (Curator of Books and Manuscripts, Royal Collection Trust) is available at £16.95 from Royal Collection Trust shops rct.uk/shop and all good bookshops.

For further interest, ‘A Century of Photography’ exhibition, which explores stories behind some of the most enduring photographs taken of the Royal Family, is open at Buckingham Palace (King’s Gallery) and includes an early photo of Queen Mary, and Queen Camilla photographed by royal photographer Hugo Burnand.

Book tickets at rct.uk

Protecting your collections

We are frequently asked to organise cover for art collections, both large and small, as well as jewellery, antiques and many others. Coins, stamps, toys, gothic locks, netsuke, toothpicks – the things we are asked to find cover for are as varied, fascinating and idiosyncratic as our clients.

Whatever you choose to invest in, you will need to keep up-to-date with its value and insure it correctly, as in the event of a claim you don’t want to realise you’re underinsured.

To speak to Howden about insuring your collection, call 020 8256 4901 or email privateclients@howdeninsurance.co.uk