The Queens Dolls House postcard album (Raphael Tuck)

2016 Exhibit
The Queens Dolls House postcard album (Raphael Tuck) (i)
location:
Arch Two , Area 19 Antique and Vintage Dollhouse Miniatures (display)

==This exhibit is scheduled to go on display during 2016, as part of the museum's 25th anniversary improvements==,

Introduction [image info]

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A red postcard album produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd. specifically for the official set of postcards for the Queen's Dolls' House.

The album holds exactly 48 cards (the number in the official set listings), in a mixture of landscape and portrait orientations, with small cutouts for each to allow the descriptive paragraph on the back to be read without taking the cards out of the album.

The_Queens_Dolls_House_Postcards,_logo_artwork_(Raphael_Tuck).jpg

Album introduction

The Queen's Dolls' House, the gift of the nation to Her Majesty The Queen, is a representation in miniature of a typical British home in the reign of King George the Fifth.

The idea originated with Princess Marie Louise and Sir Edwin Lutyens R.A. This famous architect has not only designed the beautiful dolls' house and much of its fascinating contents, but has guided and supervised the whole work for over 2 1/2 years from its inception to its completion.

Over 1,600 firms in addition to some 2,000 individual co-operators, all masters of their craft, have contributed their choicest to make it truly representative of all that is best in British domestic art: and the house is thoroughly up-to-date in all its equipment and fittings, nothing that could contribute to comfort or convenience being omitted.

The scale throughout is but one inch to a foot ; and so accurately is everything kept to this scale that it is difficult, on looking through the album, to realise that the objects shown in these postcards are not in reality from a house of ordinary proportions. Take, for example, the dining room. Its total length is but forty-two inches, and the chairs are barely three inches high. Yet everything is in perfect proportion, even to the rolls on the table.

Electricity naturally plays an important part in a modern mansion, and is here utilized, apart from the lighting throughout, as a means of raising the roof and walls in order to expose to view the truly remarkable contents. The electric lifts are worked by means of pushes no bigger than a pin's head, and real water is laid on in the various bathrooms with which this miniature masterpiece is provided.

The garden and garage both open out from the lower part of the house, and the illustration of the garden entrance will give an idea of how wonderfully effective this arrangement has proved : while a glance at the complete model of House and Garden, to be found at the end of the album, explains this ingenious device.

We have published the 48 delightful postcards here shown at the exclusive invitation of the Queen's Dolls' House Committee with a view to providing a faithful and permanent record of this wonderful miniature palace and its priceless contents in a manner that will appeal alike to all who have been fortunate enough to inspect it at the British Empire exhibition and to those less happily situated.

Reproduced in our beautiful "Oilette" process direct from the rooms and articles themselves, and depicting the outstanding features of the Queen's Dolls' House, they rank amongst the most perfect specimens of colour printing ever placed before a discriminating public.

The authoritative description on the address-side of each postcard gives a complete and splendid idea of the beauty of this structure and its marvellous contents, it but remains to be stated that this is the only series of Queen's Dolls' House postcards issued, and that every set sold will benefit. The Queen's Dolls' House Fund which Her Majesty will distribute amongst various charities. Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd.

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MESSRS. RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS HAVE PERMISSION TO STATE THAT THE QUEEN IS VERY PLEASED WITH THE QUEEN'S DOLLS' HOUSE POSTCARDS AND THAT HER MAJESTY FULLY APPRECIATES THE CARE AND ATTENTION WHICH HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO THE PRODUCTION OF THIS BEAUTIFUL MINIATURE COLLECTION.

— Raphael Tuck & Sons, Introduction to the Queen's Dolls' House Album

External links

• The Legacy of Raphael Tuck & Sons (pastandpresent.com)

• POSTCARDS OF THE QUEEN'S DOLLS HOUSE by Bill Tonkin (studygroup.org.uk)