100 years of Britain’s Queen Mary’s doll’s house – Style

The unique project of the royal apartments in miniature (scale 1:12) was conceived in 1921 to lift the spirit of the nation after the First World War. And it was intended as a gift to Queen Mary of Teck, the wife of George V (she is the great-grandmother of the current monarch Charles III). The initiative was taken by the cousin of King George V, Princess Marie-Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, who ordered a model of the building and decoration from the architect Edwin Lutyens. “Construction” lasted three years: the house was the result of the joint work of more than 1.5 thousand craftsmen and artists, as well as 500 benefactors. 57-year-old Queen Mary liked the doll’s house.

In 1924, the finished project was shown at the British Imperial Exhibition in London, and is now on permanent display at Windsor Castle. As part of the current exhibition dedicated to the anniversary, it is possible to look inside and examine the details of the furnishings.

The doll’s house is completely residential, it has electricity and running water, and any item in the interior is not a prop or a dummy at all. The tiny grand piano is fully tuned and playable, the vacuum cleaner (a relatively new invention in the 1920s) is ready to clean, the Singer sewing machine is threaded, and the sharpened tiny scissors cut perfectly. The children’s room has everything for games: a puppet theater, a railway, a gramophone with the record “God Save the Queen”. In the queen’s bedroom you can see porcelain vases from the English manufactory Royal Worcester and a lacquer cabinet painted with Chinese miniatures from Turner, Lord & Co, a Cartier grandfather clock (ticking regularly) and a Faberge jade mouse, a gift from Grand Duchess Xenia, daughter of Alexander III. The kitchen has everything for cooking: from a kettle to a meat grinder; there is also a fully stocked wine cellar and a garage with a miniature car park.

The royal mini-library deserves special mention. On the shelves are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham – many authors specially composed miniature works commissioned by Marie-Louise.

The 2.51 x 51.5m doll’s house, which contains the entire Queen Mary universe, will be on public display until the end of the year.

Nina Spiridonova