Pete:
You were lucky to get to see that dollhouse of Queen Mary's. She was the present Queen's grandmother. The dollhouse represents a kind of house Queen Mary would have known well - a private London house in Mayfair or a similarly privileged area. It was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, with many British manufacturers donating miniatures of their products. It even has six cars in its garage, including a Rolls-Royce landaulet, a Vauxhall, a Sunbeam and two Daimlers. There is real wine in the cellar, real loo rolls are in the bath, real chocolates in the pantry, even tiny working lawn mowers. Real books are in the library, and there is even a strong room for the house's silver and jewellery. All the locks work, and have their own tiny keys. It is something like the kind of house the present Queen was born in, larger and grander, but still something completely recognisable to her; there really were houses in London like this one at the time.
