A miniature marvel

The Nostell dolls’ house, one of the National Trust’s greatest treasures, is a microcosm of life in a real historic house. The Curator of this newly restored mansion in miniature gives us a tour

- SIMON MCCORMACK

Picture your ultimate dream home, designed by a fashionable architect and containing all the rooms needed for stylish living and grand entertainment: state-of-the-art kitchen, showy guest bedrooms, a luxurious drawing room to impress your guests. All of the decor is carefully chosen and made with the finest materials and craftsmanship. Working with the best artisans, buying furniture from high-end retailers and even turning your own hand to making some items, you have created a home which makes you the envy of society. Sounds perfect... except this dream house is only about 6ft high.

The dolls’ house I describe, housed at the National Trust’s Nostell Priory in West Yorkshire, is the most intricate, most finely crafted and best-preserved example of its kind. It has recently been conserved and beautifully redisplayed in the Wakefield treasure house where it has resided for nearly 300 years, giving a powerful insight into daily life in a grand 18th-century house.

In conserving the dolls’ house we began to fully appreciate just how intact and well preserved it was. Our investigations showed that all of the paint schemes were original, as were the upholstery fabrics. Astonishingly, it looked as if almost all the original contents had remained in their rooms since they were created for the Winn family in the 1730s. This contrasts with so many of our realsized houses, including Nostell itself, where interiors have been redecorated and altered over time, and where items have been displaced or dispersed.