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King George V and Queen Mary. The dolls' house was partly conceived as a tribute to the Royal Family after the First World War
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Princess Marie Louise and the dolls' house
The idea of creating a dolls' house for the Queen was that of the King's cousin, Princess Marie Louise.
After returning home from a visit to the King and Queen at Windsor Castle, during which they had shown her much kindness, Princess Marie Louise found her mother and her sister assembling a collection of miniature furniture for Queen Mary.
Queen Mary was known as a collector of miniature objects including Fabergé animals, children's silver furniture and other examples of 'tiny craft'. This gave Princess Marie Louise an idea. She announced to her family that she would commission a dolls' house as a present for the Queen.
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Sir Edwin Lutyens by Sir William Rothenstein. This portrait of the architect is one of several hundred miniature works of art commissioned for the dolls' house |
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The idea could have come to no more than an eccentric whimsy. Because the Princess was well connected in literary and artistic circles she was able to involve a number of eminent figures in the project, and in particular, the greatest architect of the age, Sir Edwin Lutyens.
At the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1921, Princess Marie Louise approached him with the idea and he agreed immediately.
At the time Lutyens was working on the palatial Viceroy's House in New Delhi, one of the largest buildings being constructed. He was now commissioned to design the smallest house too.
The house as an historical record
Plans quickly took shape and it was decided that the dolls' house would take the form of a model of an English gentleman's house of the early 1920s. Lutyens described his aspirations for the project:
"Let us devise and design for all time something which will enable future generations to see how a king and queen of England lived in the twentieth century, and what authors, artists and craftsmen of note were there during their reign."
The aim was to present a little model house of the early twentieth century, containing the finest details, from kitchen provisions to lavatory paper in the bathrooms.
At his first meeting with Princess Marie Louise after the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Lutyens brought with him Sir Henry Morgan. He was president of the Society of Industrial Artists, one of the bodies involved in the Government's project for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, planned for 1924.
| Focus: Queen Mary's Dolls' House |
The centre of the north side of the dolls' house, showing the hall and staircase with flanking lobbies |
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Morgan had seen the potential for the dolls' house to become a showcase for British craftsmanship as well as a potentially popular public exhibit in an intended 'gallery of the arts'.
In the meantime, Princess Marie Louise had broached the subject with Queen Mary, and described her reaction as 'extremely surprised at first, but then her artistic and historical sense was fired and she agreed.'
Queen Mary also gave her permission for the dolls' house to be displayed in a special gallery at the British Empire Exhibition. A small fee would be charged for admission, the proceeds from which would go towards the fund set up by Queen Mary for her many charities.
The dolls' house takes shape
Lutyens took overall command of the scheme and within a few weeks he had created a complete set of scaled plans and elevations, just like those that would be drawn up for a proper building.
Once the timber shell was completed, it was set up in Lutyens' Delhi office in Apple Tree Yard, where artists painted the ceilings whilst craftsmen and decorators began work on the interior.
More than 40 rooms were planned to fulfil all the functions possibly required in a contemporary ideal home. For the master and mistress of the house there were a dining room; a sitting room; a library; an imposing entrance hall; private suites comprising bedroom, bathroom and wardrobe; and a strong room for valuables such as crowns and jewels.
| Focus: Queen Mary's Dolls' House |
The Butler's pantry, with cupboards designed by Lutyens, Doulton china and a miniature tin of Colman's mustard |
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The domestic staff was equally well catered for, with rooms including a kitchen, linen room, scullery, pantry and bedrooms. The house was also supplied with all the latest 'mod cons'. As well as two staircases, there are two automated lifts which stop at every floor, hot and cold running water in all five bathrooms, flushing water closets and electric light. Even the gramophone was designed to play.
At Lutyens' insistence, everything in the house was made to work, including the goods and passenger lifts, the electric lights and the major plumbing.
Once the structure and architectural embellishments were complete, the dolls' house was moved to Lutyens' own house in Mansfield Street, Marylebone, where it occupied the drawing room for two years whilst the furniture and other contents were assembled. Queen Mary took a great interest, frequently visiting and once staying for over four hours 'arranging and playing with everything'.
The 'tiny craft' of Queen Mary's dolls' house
It is the elaborate detail of the furnishings which is the house's most remarkable feature. No utensil or realistic touch was too small to be considered - ornaments, mirrors, a kitchen range, ice safe (an early form of refrigerator), flat iron, napkins, stamp album, tapestries, gramophone, oil paintings, miniature thrones, and even a tiny snail resting in the garden were included.
Led by Lutyens, a Dolls' House Committee was established to supervise the production of these different items, almost all of which were newly commissioned. Nearly 1,500 tradesmen, artists and authors were involved, generously donating their time and materials.
The list of those involved reads like a roll-call of the leading manufacturers of the day. The silver in the dining room is made by Garrard & Co; there is a treadle Singer sewing machine for repairs in the linen room; and the pantry houses sets of Minton, Doulton and Wedgwood china (marked 'K' for Kitchen and 'N' for Nursery).
Prominent writers, artists and crafts organisations of the early 1920s were also involved. The books in the library are real, commissioned from over 170 authors, including Thomas Hardy, JM Barrie, GK Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, Poet Laureate Robert Bridges and Hilaire Belloc. Many volumes were in the authors' own handwriting.
Two large walnut cabinets in the library store 700 scaled drawings and watercolours by well-known artists of the day. The 18th century-style bed in the King's Bedroom is hung and embroidered with materials worked by the Royal School of Needlework.
Open House at the British Empire Exhibition
The house was completed, with every item in place, eleven weeks before the opening of the British Empire Exhibition.
Queen Mary wrote a final letter of thanks to Lutyens on the house's completion:
" ... I, as the proud possessor of this house, can never be sufficiently grateful to you for having given so much of your time in order to give me pleasure."
After the British Empire Exhibition, at which the dolls' house became the centrepiece, attracting 1,617,556 visitors, the house went on display first at the 1925 Ideal Home Exhibition and then at Windsor Castle where it remains today.
Because of its construction with natural materials, and protection from daylight, the house survives in an excellent state of preservation, both as a delightful period piece and as an increasingly historical record - exactly as its creators intended.
Visitors can see the house at Windsor all year round where they can muse on the words of the writer A. C. Benson, who edited the official two volume history of the house:
"If we suppose that the present Queen's house lasts on for, say, two hundred years, the little mansion which seems positively the last word in convenience and beauty ... our successors will look at [it] in astonishment, and wonder that men could ever have designed to live in so laborious and cumbrous a way ... but at the same time, how they will value the house as an historical document."
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