Welcome to The Dolls House Emporium Blog - Return to the shop »

Kew Palace will reopen on 21^st March 2008 and much of its restoration is owed to one dolls’ house belonging to King George III’s daughters.

The dolls’ house, or ‘baby house’ as they were known then, was made around 1780 and presented by the young princesses to Sir George Grey, the captain of the King’s Yacht for his children in 1804.

Now, over 200 years later, the dolls’ house has helped the curators of Kew Palace with their restoration work. Many features of the dolls’ house bear a striking resemblance to the accounts of Kew Palace from the 18^th century.

The dolls’ house has been on display at Kew Palace since Spring 2004 when a collector approached the Royal Palaces to tell them of the similarities. Records showed that the wooden dolls’ house was made by a royal carpenter and Princess Mary had written about a dolls’ house at the palace, so it is very possible this is the same one. This is a rare survivor with most of its original features and furnishings intact, and the colours and styles have given great help in restoring the original decoration and furnishings.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.