Below stairs

     Over at Cornflower Books today you can see pictures from the library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, built in the early 1920s and on permanent exhibition at Windsor Castle. On this site I thought I'd go below stairs, as it were, and mention the Linen Room which houses monogrammed kitchen linen, tablecloths, bathroom towels, sheets, pillowcases, etc. all stored in vast cupboards.

    The book Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a fascinating record of a remarkable creation and shows every aspect of the house from grand rooms to functional ones, together with their period furnishings and contents. Here's a look at the more utilitarian, working side of the house, and with a scale of 1 to 12, here is the housekeeper's treadle sewing machine,

an electric iron - a modern invention at the time the house was built,

 

and the sewing kit necesary to keep the linen in good repair.

 

The linen inventory includes everything from "Servants' pillow cases - 16 only" to "Turkish bath sheets (large) - 1 dozen" and "12 pairs Royal sheets (large and small)". Sounds much like my own airing cupboard....

Comments

[Anne]

Karen - this is just the most delightful post - I love it! We are quite keen ourselves on dolls houses and I had forgotten about Queen Mary's one at Windsor. I shall have to add Windsor Castle to our list of places to visit when in the south this coming summer. Thanks for the post.

[Darlene]

My husband groaned a bit at the thought of waiting in line to see a doll's house at Windsor Castle. Once he saw it he was amazed! What a fun book to have.

[tea and cake]

We had a lot of visits to Windsor Castle as a child, and I wonder if this is where I got my love of linens from. Luckily, I now work with such lovely things - except when I have forty or so linen napkins to starch! I have to iron them dry, and they have to be pressed in a way which my employer wishes. It's not that often, though, so it's not too bad. Thank you for this post, it is lovely.

[Rebecca]

I love this so much that it sort of hurts. Tilly just won't get into doll's houses as much as I would wish, I think I need to show her this one.

[Fran H-B]

Karen, how wonderful. This book has to be purchased, and a visit made to Windsor. I have always loved dolls houses and have a small one, sadly neglected through the usual lack of time, which I have decorated and furnished myself. As a child my sister and I would spend hours making things for the dolls house made for us by my father who was an architect: books, jigsaws, letter writing sets and even some knitting done on dressmaking pins!