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Huyze Herkert, morning room: desk accessories

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In its current state Lady Herkert can certainly give orders to her servants from her desk, but to handle her correspondence and keep track of her administration, she does need a few tools (actually a lot, so this turns out to be a fairly long post) . Writing materials seemed to me the first necessity, which in the second half of the 19th century essentially meant a dip pen and an inkstand. Luckily for all of us, the Victorians knew how to turn even the most mundane objects into true works of art (all right, sometimes a little over the top, but sooo much fun to recreate in miniature) . So, the base for the ink bottles was made from “marble” (painted cardboard) with golden feet underneath (head pins cut to size) and a golden bird as decoration. The ink bottles themselves are glass beads with a black interior representing the ink, and lids made from more beads and head pins, finished with a gold jump ring as the base. I carved the holder for the dip pen out of a toothpick with a utili...
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Huyze Herkert, morning room: the desk

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The morning room was the domain of the lady of the house. Until now, I have given priority to a certain amount of spielerei with my cabinet dollhouse. This certainly fits in this room, as it was here that the lady received her less formal callers, her close friends, with whom — or so I like to imagine — she enjoyed showing off her elegant dollhouse a little. However, the morning room was primarily the space from which women with servants managed the household (and Lady Herkert certainly does have them!): here, the servants received their instructions for the day, the lady did her correspondence, and kept her accounts.  A desk was therefore an absolute necessity – and the ideal opportunity to design and make my first piece of furniture from scratch! My go-to place for inspiration for historically accurate furniture and decoration is 1stDibs.com. After researching the characteristic features of Victorian ladies’ desks, I came up with the following design (for which I use SketchUp...
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Huyze Herkert, morning room: the fire grate and the coal scuttle

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Ah, those British Victorians with their morally high standards and their pursuit for conformity! The home became a refuge and at the same time a means of expressing Victorian core values, with the fireplace as its heart – the ultimate symbol of domesticity and the importance of family. It therefore became the norm to have a fireplace in every room, with all the disadvantages that came with it. Fireplaces were expensive and time-consuming – in a large house, a maid could spend an entire day tending to the fires and lighting. They were inefficient – those standing close to the fire were half roasted, while those farther away were half frozen – and above all, they were dirty. Very dirty.  But the British Victorians stubbornly clung to the idea of an open fire, fueled with coal (although steam heat was already being used in America at the time and closed stoves existed in Germany). I already showed you the fireplace I made for my morning room, but a fireplace also required quite a ...
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Huyze Herkert, morning room: building an extension for the dollhouse in the dollhouse

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Well, as I said in my previous post, I jumped right in after I decided to make a dollhouse for the dollhouse. I found that I enjoyed working at this scale much more than I had anticipated. So I was really disappointed that the showpiece was finished so quickly. Besides, there's no kitchen, no dining room, no bath, no ... So many possibilities I'd missed. So many little things I could have made from scratch. What to do? After thinking about it for a while I decided that an extension was necessary. There was only one option: build it on top of the existing cabinet. I remember seeing some house shaped cabinets in my book ‘Victorian & Edwardian furniture & interiors’ by Jeremy Cooper. Like this ‘Architecture Cabinet’ (1858) by William Burges. And this writing cabinet by W. Gualbert Saunders. This secretaire by Richard Norman Shaw became the inspiration for the shape of the extension. The floor and walls are made of 2mm thick chipboard, the roof is made of cardbo...
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