Yootha Rose

 Yesterday I was in Edinburgh with my friend and fellow dolls' house fanatic Jenny and we stumbled across this beautiful dolls' house collage in an antique shop:

Of course we were quite intrigued by it and immediately wondered who might have made it.

Luckily it was signed. I have to admit that the name Yootha Rose meant nothing to me, however, Jenny recognised it immediately as being that of a lady who designed and made toys in and around the 1970s.

Spotting our enthusiasm for the picture, the owner of the shop came to tell us that Yootha Rose had made toys for the Royal Family. I think this was by way of an explanation for the £800 price tag.

Resigned to the fact that the price was beyond what either of us was prepared to pay, we tried to tell ourselves that the picture was probably too big to be carried safely through the very rainy streets of Edinburgh and home on the train in any case. But how either one of us would have loved to have taken it home...

At least the shop owner was happy for us to take photos of it and here are some close-ups of the rooms depicted:

 

Upper Floor Left

Upper Floor Right

Lower Floor Left

Lower Floor Right

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A Bit About Yootha Rose (1899-1988)

Because I had never heard of Yootha Rose and because I love to learn, I have of course been searching the internet for information about her. This is what I've found:

From Ancestry.co.uk:

• Full name Yootha Madge Millais Rose.
• Born January 1899 in Melbourne, Australia.
• Father Charles Rose an English light tenor of some note born July 1866 in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK.
• Mother Magdalen Elizabeth Rose born in Cape Town, South Africa, March 1865.
• 1900 sister Beryll Phyllis Rose also born in Melbourne, Australia.
• 1911 census (age 12) living with parents and sister in Chelsea, London.
• 1925 married to Percy Philipps [born March, 1889).
• 1939 England and Wales Register: Yootha Philipps (age 40) living in Blandford Road, Dorset with husband Percy Philipps (age 50) who was a retired "Estimating Clerk" (an Estimating Clerk usually works in the Sales Department of an organisation). No children listed as living at address.
• 1945 father died (aged 79) in Harwich, Essex, UK.
• 1949 mother died aged 84 in Kingston-upon-Thames.
• 1978 husband Percy died
• 1988 (May) Yootha's death was registered in Worthing, West Sussex.

From a “Personality of the Month” feature which appeared on the Royal Pavillion Museums & Libraries website in 2013 [obtained via openhouseminitaures blog]:

"Yootha Rose was born in Australia in 1899 when her father, the singer Charles Rose, was touring with Nellie Melba.

Afterwards the family returned to England and, when she was 18, Yootha joined a concert party and entertained troops during the First World War. She then went on to design sets for various West End musicals.

During the Second World War, she taught at a school in Dorset and it was here that she began making toys. She was a success, making 16 toys for the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition and received orders for 40,000 more.

She also provided toys for royalty, including a roundabout for Prince Charles and dolls for Princess Anne.

Using pottery, wood, paper and fabrics, she created a wide range of toys, from carved wooden balloonists to tinsel angels.

In 1952, Yootha was appointed a trustee of the National Toy Museum. Seven years later she became its Honorary Curator. The Museum moved to the Grange in Rottingdean in 1959 and the collection was taken over by the Brighton Corporation in 1971.

It finally moved to Hove Museum & Art Gallery [now Hove Museum of Creativity] where many items from the collection are on display in the Wizard’s Attic gallery."

 

From VADS website:

In 1946 at least six different toys made by Yootha Rose were shown at the Britain Can Make It Exhibition, three of which were designed by her for Heal & Son Ltd.

From British Pathé website:

There is a lovely piece of 1952 British Pathé film footage about Yootha here.

From International Dolls' House News magazine:

There is a photo of Yootha Rose in the Winter 1971 issue of IDHN (Vol. 2. No.3.) where it also mentions that "Many of the toys in the Penshurst Toy Museum [near Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent] are from Miss Rose's own collection", which appears still to be the case today.

From vincentgbarlow.co.uk:

In 1977 there was a retrospective exhibition of Yootha Rose's work (1911-1976) held at the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton.

From the V&A Museum website:

Two of Yootha's watercolour designs for theatre productions are held by the V&A Museum, London.

From a 1978 article (unfortunately only available by subscription) in The New York Times entitled "Toymaker to the Royal Family":

The author of the article has clearly interviewed "Miss Rose" who is described as "The closest thing to a royal toy maker in the service of Queen Elizabeth II".

The article tells us that she had been making her hand-carved and hand-painted "carousels and doll houses" for the children of the royal family for 25 years, so starting in about 1953. Her first royal commission was from Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth's grandmother) who ordered a carousel for Princess Anne and a miniature village for the children of Princess Alexandra (Queen Elizabeth's first cousin).

Another interesting snippet from the article tells us that Yootha also made "an eight-inch Christmas tree, with tiny toys dangling from its boughs, that is set up each December in the famous Queen Mary's doll house at Winsor Castle". I wonder if it is still set up at Christmas to this day.

The article gives the reader a fascinating insight into some of the toys Yootha was making at the time and an outline of the style of the toys she made ("roughly hewn but richly detailed... beguiling blends of the primitive and the sophisticated"), as well as how she liked to dress any characters depicted in her toys ("my period" or the years just after the end of the Edwardian period). It also mentions that she had a large following in the United States as well as in Britain and that her toys ranged in price from ten dollars for a small figure to three hundred dollars "for a miniature zoo".

I had to smile when I read this quote from Miss Rose: "in Britain, the children are completely uninterested in plastic dolls, with large bosoms and modern clothing" - I wonder what she would make of the Barbie movie breaking box office records in Britain and around the world just now!

At the end of the article we are informed that Miss Rose was widowed (it was actually written the year her husband died) with grandchildren living in Australia (though strangely I haven't turned up any records for children born to Percy and Yootha). It mentions too that she is living alone in a "three-storey house... filled from top to bottom with toys". Her address for "inquiries" was given as 24 Clermont Terrace, Brighton, Sussex, England.

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Well, that's it so far. If anyone reading this has any more information about Yootha or perhaps even photos of her work - it would be wonderful to hear from you!

Until next time,

Zoe