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Mrs Bryant's Pleasure
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Mrs Bryant's Pleasure
- Object:
Dolls' house
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
1860-1865 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Jointed and painted wood
- Credit Line:
Given by Miss Helen Bryant
- Museum number:
MISC.9-1955
- Gallery location:
Museum of Childhood, Homes Gallery, case 2
This house is not a child's plaything. It was made for a lady called Mrs Bryant in the early 1860s, who lived in a house in Surbiton called Oakenshaw. Mrs Bryant wanted to make a miniature record of the interior of her home. The only child-related object is a child's folding chair in the drawing room. Mrs Bryant commissioned a professional cabinet-maker to make the furniture which was made with skill and accuracy. The rooms are furnished in exactly the same way as a middle class home of the time would have been. The wallpaper is the same as Mrs Bryant would have had on her walls at home. 1860 was still too early for bathrooms, which became more widespread in the 1890s, and so the bedrooms are equipped with wash-stands and basins. The kitchen is surprisingly small. A real kitchen in a middle class household would have been considerably larger to accommodate the large range of kitchen equipment needed to keep the house going.
