My Antique Scottish Dolls’ House - A Look at its History

In January 2019 I became the very happy owner of this neglected but nevertheless grand old dolls' house.

The Day of Arrival

The house came with written provenance and until late 2018 it had been in the same family for at least 160 years.

The notes and family tree accompanying the house (written by a member of the long line of family owners) provided the following information:

"It is thought this Dolls' House was made for 2 sisters, (1st cousins of Alexander Wedderburn K.C.) in about 1850-1860."

It's my dream scenario with an old dolls' house to know the names of the lucky children who first played with it, so I immediately set out to identify these two sisters. It didn't take me long to hit a stumbling block.

As Alexander Wedderburn K.C was a member of the British peerage and his wife was named as Mathilde Segelke in the notes, it was easy to discover that he was Alexander Dundas Ogilvy Wedderburn K.C., born 1854. (To keep things simple I'll refer to him simply as 'Alexander' from here on.)

Excellent. Next to find the two sisters. To be Alexander's first cousins, they would have to be the children of his uncles or aunts. This is where I met a difficulty.

As this section of the family tree I've drawn shows, Alexander only had one female first cousin - Helen Margaret Ogilvy Wedderburn (I'll refer to her simply as Helen from here on).

Of course Alexander could also have first cousins from his mother's side of the family, however another delve into his ancestry revealed that his mother was an only child, so no uncles or aunts there to provide first cousins.

So was the house made for first cousin Helen alone? She was born in 1857 which would fit with the dates in the notes. But then where did this idea of two sisters come from? An idea which has presumably been passed down with the dolls' house for more than a century and a half.

I have a theory which suggested itself to me when I was looking to see where Helen might have lived when the house was made for her, if indeed it was. 

The 1861 Scotland Census shows that when Helen was three years old, she, her parents, and her brother John, were living with her paternal grandmother Helen Wedderburn (nee Ogilvy - I will refer to her as 'Helen senior' from here on) who was 'head of household', her husband John Wedderburn having died in 1839. Interestingly though, there was another person living with them and this was Helen senior's older sister Lady Mary Ogilvy.

So here we had two sisters living in the house with Alexander Wedderburn K.C.'s first cousin Helen: her grandmother (born 1798) and her great-aunt (born c1792). Was the dolls' house made for these two sisters?

There were actually five sisters amongst Helen senior and Lady Mary's eleven siblings and if the dolls' house had been made for them, then it can easily be imagined that it ended up with the youngest two, Helen and Mary. Or it might simply have been made specifically for the two youngest.

And if the dolls' house was in Helen senior's house when Alexander's first cousin Helen was living with her aged three, she would surely have had the opportunity to look at or perhaps even play with it. 

When Helen senior and Lady Mary died within a few months of each other in 1868, when Helen was aged eleven, it follows that the dolls' house would have been bequeathed to her as Helen senior's granddaughter from her eldest son and particularly as Lady Mary had never married and therefore had no direct descendants.

It can also easily be imagined that after the house was later passed to Alexander's line of the family, at some point as it went down that line, the knowledge that it was made for those two sisters might have become conflated with the knowledge that it came to Alexander's line through his first cousin Helen.

If all of this were so, then the house would actually date to c1780-1800! Of course I have asked myself whether the house itself - its architecture and its original interior decor - would fit with this theory. I am no expert on houses of those dates but, as I will cover in a separate blog post, my feeling is that it really could be that old, though I will seek further advice on the matter.

One outcome of the earlier dating would be a need to rethink the name of the house. I have been calling it Wedderburn House, but if my theory were to prove correct then it would be more accurate to call it Ogilvy House, since that was the family name of Mary and Helen when it was made.

The [Possibly Irrelevant] Question of Where 1st Cousin Helen Lived

Going back a step, I mentioned that I was looking to see where Helen (Alexander Wedderburn K.C.'s first cousin) might have lived when the house was made, if it was made for her. The 1861 Scotland Census transcript gives Helen senior's address (where first cousin Helen was living with her family) as "Rosebank Rd" in the civil parish of "Lasswade" in the county of "Midlothian" (Scotland). The census also states that she was born in "Roslin, Edinburgh.

It's odd that no house name or number is given for "Rosebank Rd" as this information would usually be noted and I wonder if perhaps there has been some sort of error in transcription. Perhaps it was "Rosebank Ho" as in 'House' and not "Rosebank Rd"? Unfortunately the original document isn't available to view online so I can't check.

Rosebank House Roslin c 1910

My research did turn up this photo of Rosebank House, Roslin (demolished in 1950) and both Lady Mary and her sister Helen are recorded as having died at Rosebank, Roslin (both in 1868). There is a Rosebank Road to the north of Edinburgh, but Roslin is 7 miles is to the south of Edinburgh, so there is an element of uncertainty.

In any case, by the time of the 1871 Scotland Census, Helen is thirteen and living with her parents and brother at Liberton House in the civil parish of Liberton in Midlothian. This also states her place of birth as "Roslin" but in later Censuses it is spelled "Rosslyn", an alternative spellings of Roslin (also Roslyn).

Of course, all of this may be quite irrelevant if the house was made for the Ogilvy sisters two generations earlier!

The [Possibly More Relevant] Question of Where the Two Sisters Mary and Helen Lived

So if  the dolls' house was made for the two sisters Lady Mary and Helen senior, where would they have been living at the time?

According to the Scotland Census records, both sisters were born in Balnaboth, Forfarshire in 1792 and 1798 respectively. Their parents were Walter Ogilvy and Jean Ogilvy, and the family seems to have been living at Balnaboth for some time prior to Mary and Helen's births, so it seems likely that this is where the dolls' house was made.

Balnaboth is near Kirrimuir, Angus (Scotland) which is about twenty miles directly north of Dundee. If this was where the dolls' house first came into being, it is likely to have been made by either an estate carpenter or a local carpenter who worked for the estate.

Regardless of whether the house was made 160 years ago, or 230 years ago, at least one thing seems reasonably certain, and that is that the house started life in Scotland.

From First Cousin Helen to Alexander Wedderbank's Line

So, on to the next leg of the dolls' house's journey. The notes accompanying it tell us that from Alexander's first cousin[s]...

"It then was passed to Peggy Wedderburn (later De La Rue & then Sutton), and to her daughter Griselda." 

This section of family tree I've drawn shows that journey (the broken red arrows).

First cousin Helen (who never married) had no children, neither did her younger brother John. Her youngest brother Charles did marry but not until 1898 and her only niece wasn't born until 1904 (when Charles was forty and Helen forty-seven). 

In the meantime, Helen's first cousin Alexander had his daughter, Margaret Griselda, known as Peggy, in 1888 and the dolls' house was passed to her from Helen.

The house then passed to Peggy's daughter, Ann Griselda, who was born in 1918.

From Griselda to Cousin Clarissa

The notes accompanying the dolls' house continue:

"Alister & Cynthia then had it for their daughters. Clarissa remembers playing with it at Elm tree Cottage in Willingdon, Sussex at the age of 3,4,5,6. It spent the war years in the barn of Parsonage Farm, East Hagbourne, Berkshire."

This section of family tree I've drawn shows this part of the journey as the house went to Alister for his daughters. 

Luckily the family tree accompanying the house identified 'Alister' as Alexander Henry Melvill Wedderburn, Griselda's uncle (son of Alexander Wedderburn K.C.). Alister was married to Cynthia (nee Lubbock).

Alister and Cynthia had three daughters and Clarissa (the eldest) was born in 1925, so when the notes say that she remembers playing with the house at the "age of 3,4,5,6" this would have been 1928-1931 and the subsequent war years referred to were WWII.

The youngest sister, Olivia, was born in 1934, and when the war finished in 1945 she would have been age eleven. Clarissa would have been twenty.

From Clarissa to her Granddaughter Adelaide

The note accompanying the house (which is the first of two) concludes:

"In 1957 it was bequeathed to Clarissa & went to North End, Bledsoe, Bedfordshire, later to Bridge House, Great Barford, Beds, & to The Chantry, Great Barford, Beds, giving endless pleasure to countless children. 1992 given to Adam and Katie Robinson for Adelaide"

This section of family tree I've drawn shows the house's journey from Clarissa to her granddaughter Adelaide.

The family tree which accompanies the house shows that Clarissa married twice; firstly to "Ursuley", with whom she had two children; and secondly, in 1955 she married James Robinson after which she had a further three children, including Adam.

As the note says, Adam and his wife Katherine (Katy) Adelaide (nee Harben) were given the dolls' house in 1992 for their daughter Adelaide. It would seem from this that the dolls house was in Clarissa's life for about sixty-four years (though in storage for part of that), including thirty-five in her later adult life.

From Adelaide to Eliza

Up until this point the house's journey had been relatively easy to follow. From here on however, it got trickier.

The two notes accompanying the dolls' house appear to have been written by the same hand and the second note, dated 7th April, 2012 is signed "Tonia":

"This dolls house was at Grandma's* house when I was little. I could only look at the top floor by standing on my tip toes.. Nolly's* bedroom was on the right.. she gave us sweeties that must have been 100 years old, like her! Adam & Katie moved to South Africa, so the dolls house came to me. Adelaide & Tilda had a fab time playing with it & when they were too big for it it came to Eliza Robinson for safekeeping... Love Tonia

Adam is my half uncle & a cousin too! *Grandma is Clarissa Robinson & *Nolly was my Great Granny."

From the note's content and tone, I am assuming that it was written to Eliza Robinson by Tonia when she was passing the house on to her.

The next step was to find Tonia's full name and to place her in the family tree.

A business name on the back of the note led me to discover Antonia’s  married name and from that I was able to discover her maiden name, Antonia Robinson, which is what I’ll stick to here.

Fitting Antonia into the family tree wasn’t quite so easy but this section of family tree which I've drawn (in green if you have good eyesight!) shows where I believe she sits in it and two things point to this…

Firstly, I know from the family tree accompanying the dolls' house that Clarissa's two children from her first marriage were called Michael and Antony and an announcement of Antonia's engagement in The Times names her father as Anthony (though no surname given is given in the digitised version available online). Secondly, Antonia mentions that Adam is her half-uncle, so it would seem to follow that her father has to be one of Adam's half-brothers.

The fact that Antonia mentions that Adam is also a cousin is probably a clue too, but I have to confess that my brain will not find its way around that one! The next statement that "Grandma is Clarissa Robinson & Nolly was my Great Granny", may (or may not) have been intended to clarify this point but since I don't know who Nolly was it doesn't help me - Antonia would have had four great grannys, though my best guess is that she's referring to Clarissa's mother, Cynthia, who was born in 1899 and lived until 1986, so not quite a hundred years old but that reference may not have been meant to be taken literally.

I did wonder if “Ursuley” and James Robinson might have been brothers, though The Peerage does not confirm this. The Peerage is unswerving in referring only to members of the British peerage and Clarissa’s first marriage is not mentioned, which in itself suggests that “Ursuley” and James were not brothers. Nor is “Ursuley” listed in The Peerage as a child of James’ father, so this theory would seem dead in the water.

As an aside, I'd love to know what "Nollys bedroom was on the right" referred to. A room on the right in the dolls' house? If so, what could that mean? Or does it refer to a room on the right in a real life property somewhere?

The note confirms that the house was then passed from Antonia to her niece Eliza Robinson.

The Sting in the Tail

The reason I know that Eliza is Antonia’s niece (the daughter of one of her brothers) is because I managed to make contact with a member of the family. I had hoped that in doing so I would be able to fill in some of the blanks and complete the picture in terms of the house’s journey to me. 

Unfortunately, this didn’t go to plan. But that’s another story and one which it has taken me over six months to recover my equilibrium from*. Maybe I will post about it another time, but suffice for now to say that sadly that line of enquiry is no longer an option.

What I do know for certain is that as the latest guardian of this venerable dolls' house, I will take my responsibilities very seriously. The task of removing several layers of paint to reveal the original is already underway and I will post a progress update in de course.

Until next time,

Zoe

*During which time, I removed the original version of this post, which is why some of you will recognise it from last July.

Fern Cottage Piano

I've been giving Fern Cottage a light clean today and have repaired the slight damage to the piano in the parlour.

Though it’s simply made, it’s an interesting piano and, never one to resist a rabbit hole, I had to find out more about it.

T’internet tells me that it’s a tall upright cabinet piano of the type popular in the early 19th century. I did recognise it as being similar to the one in the Brontë family parsonage in Haworth, North Yorkshire.

The pleated silk back section is a nice detail. As is the sheet music on it - “Bob and Joan” written for the “Melodeon, Concertina and…” the piano? Probably not, but we won’t dwell on that! 

Obviously, more of my afternoon was frittered away as I learned that ‘Bob and Joan’ is an old traditional folk tune!

I do love how this hobby takes you to unexpected places!

Until next time,

Zoe

Fern Cottage

Work on the Tri-ang DH/7 has stalled awhile as summer has arrived and outdoor jobs and passtimes have taken priority, though I'm sure I'll get back to it soon.

In the meantime, however, I've just become the very happy owner of this little house which I'm calling Fern Cottage.

I know nothing about her other than that she is in completely original condition and came with all of her wonderful original home-made contents.

I would guess that she dates to sometime around the beginning of the last century - 1900-1920 maybe?

The rooms are furnished and decorated in a Victorian style, but whether that was the current style when she was built, or a recreation of a bygone era, I don't know.

However, going by the style of the dolls' house itself, the materials used, the furniture and the patina (or ingrained grime!) I would say that she certainly has some age to her.

This is the parlour containing two very comfy looking armchairs, a piano (with slight damaged sustained in transit but only needing a touch of glue to put it right) and a stand with a pretty display of dried flowers on it. The fireplace and the piano are fixed in place.

I like the way the walls to either side of the central staircase are curved downstairs so that both of the ground floor rooms have access to the hallway - a nice touch!

Everything has been made by hand and I particularly like the fireplace with its large mirror and fringed and beaded green velvet cover. Also the lovely little rag rug, [clippy or proggy mat as they're known here in the North East].

The chairs have been cleverly made and look to be of the inviting squishy variety. The fabrics are a little worn but the neat little trim in contrasting thread makes them still rather smart.

The stand seems to be home-made too, though I think the display of flowers on it may have been added at a later date since the colours are still very vibrant and the plate on which the flowers stand appears to be more modern than the other contents of the house.

We'll call this the dining room, though it doesn't contain a table! I wonder if it might have had one at one time.

There's another lovely fireplace with all manner of hand-made adornments [some requiring a little TLC I think] and another sweet little rag rug.

The fireplaces themselves are very nicely made and look as if they might be made from cast metal - I must to investigate further!

The grates are filled with shredded tissue paper and gold thread to make them twinkle. Each hearth has a cute metal fender too.

I particularly like the large and imposing sideboard which is very typically Victorian, and the knobbly pearlescent vases [fixed] on it intrigue me - what are they made from?

I don't really know why there is a giant cup in a bowl on the sideboard, other than that I didn't know where else to put them!

The two dining chairs are very nicely made and upholstered.

The stairs are located in the centre of the house and the tartan stair carpet is perfect for them. They're quite steep so it's lucky that the thoughtful builder installed a handrail on both sides.

The little piece of velvet used at the foot of the stairs has been well-chosen to look just like a coir mat. 

Incidentally, for the benefit of any dollies entering the house, the floor below the mat has been raised slightly by a piece of wood so that it is level with the [non-opening] front door.

At the top of the stairs, there is a cut-out in the dividing wall between the two bedrooms and neat little L-shaped banisters in each room. Privacy is compromised somewhat but it's nice that access issues have been considered. I'm sensing a very practical builder!

This is the stair access from the other [right-hand] bedroom.

Left-hand bedroom

The bedrooms [above and below] are almost mirror images of each other and each contain a bed, a chair, as chest of drawers and a dressing table.

Right-hand Bedroom

This is a selection of the sweet home-made furniture for the bedrooms.

The handles on the chest of drawers are made from pins - I'm not sure if this photo demonstrates that the furniture was never intended to be played with by children, or just a much more cavalier attitude to child safety in days gone by - judging by some of my own childhood toys, my guess would be the latter!

I'm assuming that these pieces of furniture are dressing tables, though they don't have mirrors. Someone has spent some considerable time making the selection of lovey items which are fixed to the top.

Both dressing tables were originally fixed in place though one is now loose. Again, this one contains a nice selection of hand-made items, including a very elaborate glass object which I assume represents a lamp of some sort? There is also a little hat made of red silk and white lace.

The inhabitants of this house obviously love art and the walls are generously adorned with paintings. They all look to be home-made and, without exception, are absolutely delightful!

And so to the cheery painted red brick exterior where the chimneys are impressively tall, with the flues being 'anatomically' correct for the fireplaces which are only features of the two downstairs rooms.

And the chimneys themselves are very convincing.

It's no surprise that this thoughtful builder electrified the house for the inhabitants too, though the wiring is certainly not in working order these days.

And last but not least are the inhabitants - these three ladies and their little metal dog. They look as if they have a tale or two to tell!

So, that's Fern Cottage and apart from a light clean where practical, I'll be leaving everything just as it is with this little house. I feel that someone enjoyed building her and someone enjoyed furnishing her too, so I'm just going to enjoy the fruits of their labours and creativity.

I hope you've enjoyed looking around this little gem as much as I've enjoyed photographing and writing about it!

Until next time,

Zoe

Restoring a Tri-ang DH/7 Townhouse - Part Eight

At last the balconies are back.

The second floor was the easiest. All I had to do was pop a bit of glue onto each end of the newly painted balustrades and reassemble the railings.

The first floor was trickier as I had to sort out the missing rails first.

The broken rails on the first floor balcony when the house first arrived.

A substantial part of the right-hand rail was still there so I used that as a template to create a completely new rail for that side of the house.

I drew around the existing piece of rail on some plywood of the correct depth to mark out the shape of the new rail and simply extended the long straight edge to the length of the missing piece.

Kind husband then used a jigsaw to cut out the new rail. I will attempt most woodworking jobs but I find plywood is impossible to work with and prefer someone else to make a hash of it instead. Which he didn't, I hasten to add.

Once cut, I used these handy little clamps to clamp the old and new piece together and sanded the new piece until it was nice and smooth and an exact [though longer] replica of the original.

Of course I needed holes in the rail into which the balustrades would be inserted. It was easy to get the right gauge of drill bit by inserting various sizes into the holes in the base of the balcony until the snuggest fit was found.

Kind husband and Chief Driller of Plywood had the excellent idea of lying the new rail on top of the holes in the base of the balcony and marking the the exact centre of the holes by inserting the drill bit through the underside of the balcony base. By pressing on the drill bit, the pointy tip of it indented the wood of the new rail in the exact centre of the hole.

These precise marks allowed him to drill the holes in exactly the right places, ensuring that the balustrades would be nice and straight once refitted.

For the left-hand rail, I just flipped over the rail I'd removed from the right-hand side and used it as a replacement, thought it needed a with a little extension since it wasn't quite long enough.

I cut the rail so that the extension join was above a balustrade to give it support and the photo above was taken before I'd filled, sanded and painted the join which is now pretty much invisible.

And here we have the finished front of the house with the rotting base and missing parts replaced, the paintwork reproduced, the original door unearthed and the balconies reinstated.

Oh and the original sides 'patched up' too. It's really quite a fancy house and does make me smile. 😃

The next step is replacing the glass in the windows. The glass cutter and cutting oil I ordered have arrived and I'm psyching my up for the job! I'll let you know how I get on.

Until next time,

Zoe

Restoring a Tri-ang DH/7 Townhouse - Part Seven

The balconies from my house really needed attention.

When it arrived, the second floor balconies were all intact....

 

....but a significant part of the first floor balcony was missing and would need to be replaced.

Like the rest of the house, the balustrades were caked with several layers of paint and simply overpainting them wasn't an option.

I'd already removed the balconies to make work on the front of the house easier, so the next step was to separate the balustrades from the rails - most of them came out easily but a few required gentle persuasion. 

Then came 'excavation' to find the original turnings beneath all of the paint.

This involved many evenings sitting with a tray on my lap and chipping and sanding away at them.

It was during this process that I discovered that, just like on this DH/5, the centre section of every alternate balustrade was painted red.

The photo above was taken after 'round one'. When they were all at this stage, I started over again with the chipping and sanding until their original profiles were nice and sharp again and they were smooth enough to paint.

I have to admit that I was sick of the sight of them in the end!

Original balustrade (left) with five of the newly turned copies.

I was of course missing some of the balustrades but luckily my friend's nice neighbour (the same man who turned the finial for the house mentioned in Part Four of my blog) turned some excellent copies from one of my 'excavated' originals. 

Once prepped, I painted all of the balustrades with Farrow & Ball 'Off-White No.3' to match the front of the house. The original balcony rails made excellent holders for the balustrades while they dried.

My next post will be about how I tackled the broken/missing section of the first floor balcony.

Until next time,

Zoe