The Miniature Library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House - by Elizabeth Ashby (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"The beautifully produced hardback publication provides a unique insight into the care taken by those who handwrote and illustrated the postage-stamp-sized pages, as well as the difficulties some of them faced. Newly investigated correspondence reveals where some authors, such as Thomas Hardy, found the miniature nature of the work to be insurmountable, meaning calligraphers were enlisted. The joy many of the writers took in their task is also described, such as where E. F. Benson jokingly crossed out the first lines of a limerick in his tiny book Poems, and Max Beerbohm wrote of shrinking to doll size to live in the Dolls' House Library, only to be caught and ejected."-- "Art Daily"

"The doll's house is on public view at Windsor Castle in England. The 1:12 scale detailing of it is fine throughout, but particularly spectacular is the library, the story of which is chronicled in The Miniature Library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, an excellent new illustrated history by Elizabeth Clark Ashby, curator of books and manuscripts at the Royal Collection Trust."-- "Fine Books & Collections"

About the Author

Elizabeth Ashby is a curator of books and manuscripts at the Royal Collection Trust. She has contributed to Royal Collection titles including Charles II: Art and Power and The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy.