What do you think?
Rate this book
The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls' House
A unique look inside the carefully crafted miniature library of the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House.
Created between 1921 and 1924, the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is one of the most beautiful and famous dollhouses in the world. The structure was designed by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and features the craftsmanship of over one thousand artists. The house was meticulously furnished, meant to serve as a representation of a real royal residence. It features electricity, running water, and working elevators, but perhaps most impressive of all is the house’s spellbinding Edwardian library, which includes more than three hundred miniature books, curated by the granddaughter of Queen Victoria Princess Marie Louise and the writer E.V. Lucas, who contacted hundreds of renowned authors to solicit original works. From poetry by Thomas Hardy to stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and gardening books to atlases, these works represent British aristocratic life and the best examples of art and literature of the time.
The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls' House is accompanied by a Foreword by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, making it the premiere guidebook to the Crown’s miniature royal residence.
Created between 1921 and 1924, the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is one of the most beautiful and famous dollhouses in the world. The structure was designed by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and features the craftsmanship of over one thousand artists. The house was meticulously furnished, meant to serve as a representation of a real royal residence. It features electricity, running water, and working elevators, but perhaps most impressive of all is the house’s spellbinding Edwardian library, which includes more than three hundred miniature books, curated by the granddaughter of Queen Victoria Princess Marie Louise and the writer E.V. Lucas, who contacted hundreds of renowned authors to solicit original works. From poetry by Thomas Hardy to stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and gardening books to atlases, these works represent British aristocratic life and the best examples of art and literature of the time.
The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls' House is accompanied by a Foreword by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, making it the premiere guidebook to the Crown’s miniature royal residence.
160 pages, Hardcover
Published April 23, 2024
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 12, 2024
I expect that this book is going to get a bunch of 5-star reviews, in part because the production quality is good. It has a well-designed dust jacket and a sturdy, if plain, cover. The endpapers are unremarkable but Queen Mary's bookplate is printed on the inside of the front cover, which is a nice touch. Perhaps because there are so many photographs, all of the pages are thick and glossy. (The glossy pages weren't actually that compatible with my book light.)
The text felt a little disjointed. In addition to Elizabeth Ashby, four of the chapters were contributed by others. Each of the ten chapters addressed a different subject. The chapter on the room was very short. Other chapters covered choosing the contributors (more on that later), collecting the manuscripts, the contents of the books, the bindings, music, and art.
Apparently, no one seems to know how the list of invited authors was compiled. People that Princess Marie Louise and architect Sir Edwin Lutyens had heard of? Authors of childrens' books were excluded. Some invited authors declined. In discussing how the artists were chosen on page 147, Mark Gertler and Edgar Rowley Smart were friends with someone. Smart's work was then described as "technically skilled" which is something I've heard said about artists and it was definitely not a compliment.
There are a lot of photographs of the miniature books and the photographs are close up and clear. However, the photographs of the books and the text that talked about them were not always on the same page. Sometimes a book was mentioned in more than one chapter and readers would be referred to a picture in the other chapter but, a couple times, there was another photo of the same book. I don't remember any mention of endpapers or any photos of them. The book is not indexed.
On page 113, contributor Sophie Kelly made me stop reading for a minute by saying "... the process of binding the miniature Bolls' House books would have been largely the same as for any normal-size volume, ..." which is true but horrendously misleading. The process may the same but the tools and materials are very different. Working on a miniature book is very different from working on a full-size book. Think of the difference between wrapping a gift with a bow and tag that is 12 inches long and wrapping a gift that is 1 inch long.
In the very next chapter, on page 130, Elizabeth Ashley proves that working on a miniature book is differnt, saying that the first book bound by Ashedene Press was totally crushed to a pulp when they put it in their standard book press.
The text felt a little disjointed. In addition to Elizabeth Ashby, four of the chapters were contributed by others. Each of the ten chapters addressed a different subject. The chapter on the room was very short. Other chapters covered choosing the contributors (more on that later), collecting the manuscripts, the contents of the books, the bindings, music, and art.
Apparently, no one seems to know how the list of invited authors was compiled. People that Princess Marie Louise and architect Sir Edwin Lutyens had heard of? Authors of childrens' books were excluded. Some invited authors declined. In discussing how the artists were chosen on page 147, Mark Gertler and Edgar Rowley Smart were friends with someone. Smart's work was then described as "technically skilled" which is something I've heard said about artists and it was definitely not a compliment.
There are a lot of photographs of the miniature books and the photographs are close up and clear. However, the photographs of the books and the text that talked about them were not always on the same page. Sometimes a book was mentioned in more than one chapter and readers would be referred to a picture in the other chapter but, a couple times, there was another photo of the same book. I don't remember any mention of endpapers or any photos of them. The book is not indexed.
On page 113, contributor Sophie Kelly made me stop reading for a minute by saying "... the process of binding the miniature Bolls' House books would have been largely the same as for any normal-size volume, ..." which is true but horrendously misleading. The process may the same but the tools and materials are very different. Working on a miniature book is very different from working on a full-size book. Think of the difference between wrapping a gift with a bow and tag that is 12 inches long and wrapping a gift that is 1 inch long.
In the very next chapter, on page 130, Elizabeth Ashley proves that working on a miniature book is differnt, saying that the first book bound by Ashedene Press was totally crushed to a pulp when they put it in their standard book press.
Displaying 1 of 1 review