Queen's Doll House English Postcards, 1924

The prestigious contract to produce official postcards for the Queen Mary's Dolls' House was won by Tuck's Post Cards (Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd.) The total number of cards produced by Tuck was 48 in six sets of eight. Consecutive sets of eight were sold in printed brown paper packs and there was also a special box made in blue cloth-effect that hekd around 32 postcards and a red postcard album that held all 48. This set is a full 48 cards and does fit in the blue box only meant to hold 32 cards. However, The Drawing Room card is missing and there happens to be an extra card depicting The Queen's Bed that is not listed in the official set of cards.

The Dolls' House was a gift for Queen Mary, wife of King George V. It was the idea of the king's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, who knew the queen loved collecting miniature items. Begun in 1921 and finished in 1924, it was designed by the princess's friend, the famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with tiny contents made perfectly to scale.

One of the most interesting parts of this house is the library as a royal house of the 1920s would not be complete without one. There are nearly 600 miniature books included in the library. A Sherlock Holmes story was sent by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, sent in many of his poems and decorated them with illustrations in black ink.