8-11-14: Royal Privilege

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, we all know it's good to be the King... until they drag out the Guillotine anyway.
Not only the King, but the entire, often extended, royal family. The Czar's kids had some cool toys, so did the Rajah's kids, but none can hold a candle to Britain's Royal families. You'd expect the children of the Royal's to have hot and cold running nannies, the best of tutors, and the latest comforts, however Queen Mary's dollhouse is over the top.



It seems a famous architect, Edwin Lutyens, was having a glass of wine with Princess Marie Louise, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who asked him to build a dollhouse for her cousin, Queen Mary. When Royals tell you they want you to do something, is it still a "request"? On one hand you know they can afford it, on the other, if you screw up you might be a piss-boy for life.

It took 1,500 artists and craftsmen three years to make the five foot high house. It has working plumbing, electricity and lifts, and a garage of cars with engines that run. The monograms on the linen took a seamstress 1,500 hours to sew; the buttons on the servants’ pillowcases are almost invisible; the Purdey shotguns break and load, the bottles and jars contain what their labels say they do—such as Ch. Margaux 1899, Oxford marmalade or sticks of barley sugar. There are even mice in the kitchen mousetraps. It contains scores of its household objects and features—wineglasses, mother-of-pearl, ivory and marble bathrooms, damask wall-coverings, a motorcycle and sidecar, a knife-cleaning machine and paintings on its walls and ceilings. It even has a well-stocked wine cellar.

C'mon, you know I had to screen grab the garage.
You can take a virtual tour here.

Since Mary was born in 1867, crowned Queen in 1910, died in 1953, while the doll house was completed in 1924, I don't think she played with it much. But because of the fantastic detail, it's a wonderful record of British furnishings and treasures from around the empire, of the era's hoi polloi.