The Postcard
An Oilette Series postcard that was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen. The card was printed at the British Empire Exhibition by the Fleetway Press Ltd.
The card was posted in Hornsey, London on Wednesday the 3rd. September 1924 to:
Mr. Cecil Jenner,
9, George Terrace,
Crook,
County Durham.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Went to Wembley on
Mon.
It is a great sight.
Pleased to have your
letter, will reply later.
Mother."
Wembley Park in London was the site of the British Empire Exhibition. This took place from the 23rd. April 1924 to the 1st. November 1924 and from the 9th. May to the 31st. October 1925.
Queen Mary's Dolls' House
Queen Mary's Dolls' House is the largest, most beautiful and most famous dolls' house in the world. It was created as a 1:12 scale miniature royal palace or town house as a gift from the nation to Queen Mary, consort of George V.
It was built between 1921 and 1924 by the leading British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, and includes contributions from over 1,500 of the finest artists, craftsmen and manufacturers of the early twentieth century.
From life below stairs to the high-society setting of the saloon and dining room, and from a library bursting with original works by the top literary names of the day, to a fully stocked wine cellar and a garden, created by Gertrude Jekyll, no detail was forgotten. The house even includes electricity, running hot and cold water and working lifts. Each room is fully furnished and waiting to be explored.
The contents of the House include not only furniture, silver, ceramics and textiles, but also real items of food, soap, miniature Christmas crackers and a working bicycle.
Every detail was recreated - the joints in the furniture are dovetailed, the sheets embroidered with the royal cipher, the chairs properly upholstered, and the beds are sprung.
A. C. Benson in The Book of the Queen's Dolls' House (1924) wrote:
"It is built to outlast us all. To carry on into the
future and different world this pattern of our
own.
It is a serious attempt to express our age and
to show forth in dwarf proportions the limbs
of our present world."
Planning the House
The house was the concept of Princess Marie Louise, cousin to King George V and childhood friend of Queen Mary. She decided that the queen, who loved all things diminutive and decorative, would enjoy the house, and it was to become a gift to Queen Mary in the years after the First World War.
The architect was Sir Edwin Lutyens, a friend of the princess. Between them, they created a committee that decided on the style of the house, and ensured that all its contents were of the highest possible quality and all perfectly to scale.
The committee decided that the house should be a collaborative venture with the cost and labour to be divided between as many people as possible.
In order to get contributors on board, Lutyens held regular 'Dolleluiah Dinners' at the Savoy. These events proved successful, and the completed house was the product of 250 craftsmen and manufacturers, 60 artist-decorators, 700 artists, 600 writers and 500 donors (many still household names today).
Lutyens designed the house in the full Palladian style. He drew inspiration from Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, and his initial sketches differed little from the first completed model.
He insisted that the house should be viewed from all sides, and his first letters to Princess Marie Louise were concerned with the mechanism for lifting the outer shell of the house above the rooms to ensure this.
The 1924 British Empire Exhibition
The house was to be shown at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, and the committee determined that the house would be a showcase for British workmanship.
As such, the contents of the house were created by craftsmen from all over the country, showing off the best arts and crafts of the day.
The house was displayed at Wembley for seven months, and over this period more than 1.5 million people visited it.
In July 1925 it was moved to Windsor Castle, where it was situated in a room designed by Lutyens, and where it can be visited today.
The Royal Chambers
The King's and Queen's respective suites are accessed on the second floor, via the marble staircase. Each room contains articles and decorations particular to the owner's needs.
-- The King's Bedroom
The ceiling of the King's Bedroom was painted by George Plank, who subtly interwove the notes to the first line of the National Anthem into a garden trellis.
The bedroom contains three walnut chests of drawers, a beautiful carpet, a silver Knowle chandelier, Chippendale chairs with needlework covered seats.
The bed itself is hung with specially woven silk; the coverlet is about the size of a small handkerchief.
Over the mantelpiece is a portrait of Princess Mary painted by Ambrose McEvoy.
-- The Queen's Bedroom
The walls of the Queen's Bedroom are covered in blue-grey damask, reflecting the style of the 1920's. Both beds have mattresses of horsehair on top of a box-sprung mattress, and hot-water bottles have been placed beneath the sheets.
Family Life
When Queen Mary's Dolls' House went on show in the Empire Exhibition, it made it possible for the public to better imagine how family life was led within a Royal Household. The top floor of the house has two bedrooms, four lobbies and six rooms, all of which are filled with memorabilia of childhood and family life. Also on the top floor is the housekeeper's bed-sitting room and the linen room.
Family life is nowhere more apparent than in the Day Nursery, which is brimming with English and Indian toys, and even a jar of real barley sugar sticks.
The walls are covered in chinoiserie murals of fairy tales created by Edmund Dulac, one of the most prominent illustrators of the 1880's to the 1920's.
Dulac also painted the chinoiserie-style silk walls of the Queen's Sitting Room, where items such as an unfinished embroidery and cabinets of a jade figure collection give a sense of the Queen's leisure pursuits.
In households with a nursery, a 'nanny' played a crucial role. It was usual for the baby to sleep with the nanny, and the Night Nursery in the dolls' house has a grand bed (indicative of the level of respect) for the nanny, as well as a cradle for baby.
The Saloon and Dining Room
Despite George V and Queen Mary living, in the Queen's words, a 'Darby and Joan' existence, the Dolls' House Dining Room was suited to entertaining on a grand scale.
William Newton, the then-editor of the Architectural Review, wrote of the Dining Room:
"It is a room where parade rather than
nourishment is the first consideration."
The silver in use and on display would have been accessed by the butler from the Strong Room on the lower mezzanine floor. Here, behind fully functional locking grill gates, a silver dinner service for 18 people is kept.
When dining was not involved, the Saloon on the floor above would have been used for formal entertaining. Its suite of chairs and sofas are in the style of Louis XV, covered in incredibly minute petit point embroidery.
The Library
E. V. Lucas wrote in 1924:
"How many London residences, even in Berkeley
Square and Park Lane, have a library consisting of
two hundred books written in their authors' own
hands, and a collection of over seven hundred
watercolours by living artists?
I doubt even if you could find the counterpart of
these in the real Buckingham Palace."
In the 1920s, it was not unusual for the library within a household to manifest as a masculine combination of a gun room, study and smoking room. The Library in Queen Mary's Dolls' House reflects this contemporary trend.
The room is paneled in walnut, and provides the perfect environment for gaming, writing, reading or cigar-infused contemplation.
Princess Marie Louise and her friend, the author E. V. Lucas, acted as librarians. They took charge of cataloguing and organising the books. The collection was intended to provide a representative, rather than complete, library.
In addition to containing printed reference books and standards of great literature, the princess commissioned books by living authors. She contacted around 200 renowned writers of the day.
Most were delighted to contribute, but a few, including Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw, refused. Authors who donated included J.M. Barrie, John Buchan, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Galsworthy, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, A. A. Milne and Vita Sackville-West.
Prints and Paintings
To procure the art collection for Queen Mary's Dolls' House, Princess Marie Louise contacted 700 notable artists of the day, asking them to donate drawings, watercolours, sketches, etchings, lino prints and engravings.
While some pieces were intended to adorn the walls, others were to be laid flat and stored in two cabinets in the library and drawers in the basement. The received artworks totalled 750, and covered a vast range of subjects and styles.
Today those not on the walls are kept in the Print Room at Windsor Castle. One unfortunate absence is a self-portrait by Charlie Chaplin. In 1921 Chaplin encountered Lutyens at the Garrick Club, and subsequently promised to donate a miniature portrait of himself. Lutyens was thrilled, but the offered artwork never manifested.
Paintings are not limited to those on miniature canvas. In many of the rooms, ceilings and walls are adorned with murals. The ceiling of the King's Wardrobe shows female nudes painted by Wilfrid de Gelhn (1870–1951). Look upwards in the King's Bedroom and George Plank's (1883–1965) verdant garden trellis is marked by orange flowers with the notes of the National Anthem.
Particularly impressive is the mural on the walls of the two halls linked by the Grand Staircase. This depiction of Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden was painted by William Nicholson (1872–1949), one of Lutyens's closest friends.
In addition, the House's collection includes 50 signed and unpublished music scores bound in leather and embossed with the Queen's monogram. Musicians who contributed include Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, Arthur Bliss, John Ireland and Arnold Bax. Only Sir Edward Elgar refused, furious at being asked to devote his artistic energy to something so 'trivial'.
Staff Rooms
After the Great War, the number of domestic staff declined in Great Britain as better employment could be found in offices or factories.
Large households realised that they needed to accommodate remaining servants with good facilities, modern technology and decent living quarters. Queen Mary's Dolls' House has all of these things.
The staff rooms on the lower and upper mezzanine floors can only be accessed by the back staircase or the service lift. These rooms give an insight into the ordinary life of household staff that has otherwise been lost to time.
Each bed has a chamber pot underneath and a wire sprung mattress. Odontase toothpaste, bottles of Eno's Fruit Salts and washstand sets are found on dressing tables.
The Garden and Garage
No stately home would be complete without a garage to keep a fleet of motorcars as well as a perfectly landscaped English garden.
On the west side of the house is a five-bay garage. All great British manufacturers of the day are represented – Daimler, Lanchester, Rolls-Royce, Sunbeam and Vauxhall.
Each firm provided custom built models in the royal motor colours of maroon and black embossed with either a coat of arms or royal cipher. From 1900 to 1943, royal cars were made by Daimler, a tradition instigated by Edward VII. Today, The Queen's official cars are all made by Rolls-Royce.
On the east side of the house is a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, one of the most influential garden designers of the day. Jekyll collaborated with Lutyens on many of the gardens for his houses. She also contributed an aptly named book in miniature for the Dolls' House Library, The Garden.
Each flower and tree is exactly to scale, botanically correct and based on studies at Kew Gardens. Attention to detail is flawless; each leaf on each tree was shaped by hand.
The Cellar, Kitchen and Pantry
Every domestic need is catered for in the dolls' house. There is a fully stocked cellar and pantry, as well as a kitchen equipped to prepare a banquet. The act of choosing which brands to include was carefully considered.
Agnes Jekyll (1861–1937), the sister of Gertrude, was in charge of the kitchen stores. She wrote to Princess Marie Louise that it was best to involve only firms who already supplied the Royal Household to avoid upsetting manufacturers with shows of favouritism.
The Wine Cellar is well stocked. Over twelve hundred bottles of the finest champagnes, wines and spirits and beers were donated. They were chosen by Francis Berry, the senior partner of Berry Bros of St James's Street in London, today Britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant.
The Sabre Noise Incident
So what else happened on the day that Cecil's mother sent him the postcard?
Well, the 3rd. September 1924 was the day of the Sabre Noise (Ruido de Sables) Incident. This took place in Chile when a group of young military officers rattled their sabres within their scabbards (chapes) against the floor. They were protesting against the political class and the postponement of social measures.
The incident gave rise to the term 'Sabre Rattling'. Sabre rattling is any indirect indication of military aggressiveness. It differs from a threat or ultimatum, in that the possibility of military action is implied, not stated explicitly.
Saber rattling can be expressed through political speeches, diplomatic protests, or promoting war hawks to positions of power. Military exercises can also serve as a form of saber rattling, by displaying military capabilities to adversaries.
Mary Canfield
The day also marked the birth in Rochester, New York of the American theatre, film and television actress Mary Grace Canfield.
-- Mary Canfield - The Early Years
Mary Grace Canfield was the second child of Hildegard (née Jacobson) and Hubert Canfield. She grew up in Pittsford, New York. She had a sister, Constance, who was two years older.
Acting mostly in small theatre companies and regional theatre between 1952 and 1964, Mary appeared in several Broadway plays, but most ran for no more than a month. Her Broadway credits include The Waltz of the Toreadors and The Frogs of Spring.
Canfield's first credited performance on television was in March 1954, when she portrayed Frances in the episode "Native Dancer" on Goodyear Playhouse.
After making further television appearances, she played housekeeper Amanda Allison on the sitcom The Hathaways during the 1961-1962 season.
As Thelma Lou's "ugly" cousin in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, she had an arranged blind date with Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors. Her name on this episode was her actual name, Mary Grace.
The episode was originally scheduled to air on the 25th. November 1963, but it was pre-empted by the coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy three days earlier.
-- Green Acres
Canfield was best known for her recurring role on the hit comedy series Green Acres as Ralph Monroe, the all-thumbs carpenter who greeted her fellow Hootervillians with her signature "Howdy Doody!"
Mary appeared in more than 40 episodes of the show during its six-season run from 1965 to 1971. She reprised the role in the 1990 TV movie Return to Green Acres.
Recalling the Ralph character in a 2006 interview, she said:
"To be remembered for Ralph kind of
upsets me - only in the sense that it
was so easy and undemanding. It's
being known for something easy to
do instead of something you worked
hard to achieve."
-- Mary Canfield's Other Roles
Mary guest-starred on The Eleventh Hour.
In 1966, Canfield played Abner Kravitz's sister Harriet on four episodes of Bewitched. Actress Alice Pearce, who played Abner's wife, Gladys Kravitz, had died from ovarian cancer, and her successor as Mrs. Kravitz (Sandra Gould) had yet to be hired.
During the early 1970's, Canfield and actress Lucille Wall shared the role of Lucille March on General Hospital.
Canfield appeared in feature films such as Pollyanna (as "Angelica"), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
-- Mary Canfield's Later Life and Death
Canfield made her last public appearance in 2005 when she attended Eddie Albert's funeral with Green Acres co-stars Sid Melton and Frank Cady.
Mary died at the age of 89 from lung cancer on the 15th. February 2014 in Santa Barbara, California.