Felicity Clemens looked at her daughter, Antonia’s new doll’s house and thought that she could make a better one. The daughter of Sir Geoffrey Syme, the well-educated Clemens loved history and she was also good at carpentry and craft. When Clemens lived in Melbourne, Australia, she was a member of the Arts and Crafts Society, so she had a background in design. She decided that she could use some of her husband's medical tools to make the furniture.
Clemens decided to set the house, which she began in the 1940s, in the Jacobean period and meticulously researched the era. She read many books on the period and she also subscribed to the English Country Life magazine. Living in a historic building in Tasmania which dated to the 1840s must also have inspired her.
The Making of the Pendle Hall Doll’s House
Clemens named her house, Pendle Hall, because her family had connections with Pendle Hill in Lancashire. She may also have decided to populate it with a real family and servants for this reason as well as for her daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Halifax, together with their five children and their servants live in Pendle Hall. There are also cousins and aunts in the house! These small dolls have double-jointed limbs and are dressed in Georgian clothes.
Clemens painstakingly made Pendle Hall, which is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, herself. She crafted all of the interiors, the furniture, and even the dolls. Much of the furniture is dovetailed, joined, and carved. Clemens even made curved staircases and exquisitely paneled walls and doors. She made parquetry and marquetry floors by cutting hundreds of pieces of timber individually. Clemens used fine woods for her interiors, including maple, rosewood, and wild cherry.
The artist was such a perfectionist that she made one of the staircases twice! It didn’t fit the first time. She also hired an electrician to fix the wiring so that all of the lights worked. She made the lights herself, including chandeliers. The lights also work in Queen Mary’s Doll’s House which can be seen in London. Pendle Hall is so realistic that even a tiny mouse can be seen in the kitchen next to a wheel of cheese.
The exquisite doll's house will be on display at the Museum of Victoria later this year.
Sources
Pendle Hall, Australia’s Greatest Doll’s House RN By Design
Pendle Hall Perfect in Every Detail
Museum Victoria: Introducing Pendle Hall
Lisa Sanderson - Lisa has been a freelance-writer for many years. She used to write for the topic, British Social History, for Suite 101 under the ...
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