Dolls' Houses of the World: Number Two

This is the Jessie Marion King House. OK, so it may not be one of the world's most famous dolls' houses, but I have chosen it because I love it and it is by a fantastic Scottish artist and designer, Jessie M King. 

King is perhaps best known as an illustrator of books, mostly, but not exclusively, for children.

However, she also designed and decorated ceramics, murals, fabrics, stained glass and interior designs.

Jessie M King was a student at the Glasgow School of Art from 1892 and became a tutor of book decoration and design from 1899. 

Whilst we are on the subject of the Glasgow School of Art, an iconic building designed externally and internally by Charles Renne Mackintosh, I wanted to say how very sorry I was to hear of the devastating fire  in May, which destroyed part of the wonderful building.

One of the rooms so tragically destroyed was the Library, a beautiful interior, considered by many to be one of Mackintosh's best works. The room was still very much in use by students, many of whom also lost some of their artwork in the fire.

The Library was full of irreplaceable pieces by Mackintosh, along with books and artwork.

Firefighters worked extremely hard to prevent the fire from destroying the entire building. Thanks to their efforts much of what could have been destroyed by the fire was saved.

The three pictures above show the aftermath of the fire in the Library. A salvage and clean up operation is now underway, and hopefully the building and its beautiful interiors can be rebuilt and restored. 

Going back to the dolls' house! 

Jessie King married a fellow artist and Glasgow School of Art alumni Earnest Archibald Taylor in 1908. They moved to Paris in 1911 and set up the Sheiling Atelier School, to teach art and design. 

In 1913 King presented her interior design for a nursery at an exhibition of art for children, Exposition de l'Art Pour l'Enfance, at the Musee Galliera in Paris. It was for this exhibition that the dolls' house above was created.

This is a photograph of the nursery which had white painted furniture, blue walls with murals and stained glass windows. You can see the dolls house on the left hand side of the photo.

This is the exhibition poster 

Above are two designs for the nursery: a mural of the Frog Princess, and a design for one of the walls, which gives some idea of the colour and decoration used in the final design at the exhibition.

Jessie King also decorated ceramics, this delightful jug, in the V&A, London, is one painted by the artist. You can see similarities in terms of style and colours used on the jug and in the nursery.

And here is one of King's wonderful book covers for children

This enchanting book illustration is also by King. The houses in the background share some characteristics with the dolls' house created for the nursery, with their little square windows and green shutters.

Another beautiful book cover design by Jessie King. The Jessie M King House is on display at the V&A museum in London. There are also some great vintage dolls' houses at the V&A's Museum of Childhood in Bethnel Green in London. Please see their website for further information.

Please see the Glasgow School of Art's website for more information on their iconic building.