The Marie Antoinette Connection

The Marie Antoinette Connection

Kevin Mulvany and Susie Rogers are two of my favorite artisans. Trained historians, they specialize in architectural miniatures and are known for re-creating historically significant and detailed European castles and mansions. They have traveled miles in order to visit the places they rebuild.

Drawing room in the Marie Antoinette dollhouse by Mulvany & Rogers. Found on the Daily Mail

The Drawing Room

This six-room dollhouse was commissioned by a private California collector at a value of $70,000, in 2009. The rooms are based upon various locations from the 16th century: Versailles Palace, the Chateau de Bagatelle and the Palace of Fontainebleau, all connected to Marie Antoinette who was guillotined during the French revolution in 1793.

The Boudoir

It took over 10,000 hours to create the home and all its detailed furnishings. These include real crystal chandeliers- ￡1000 each (one per room), furniture made from luxury wood, miniature hand-painted Sevres porcelain dinnerware, as well as two copies of porcelain Sevres vases. There are real pieces of 16th-century cutlery in sterling silver, twenty-two carat, gold-plated decorative leaves along the moldings and skirting of the walls. A miniature antique statue (an exact marble copy) of the Italian sculptor, Antonio Canova’s Three Grace Statue. Above it- a handcrafted brass and glass lantern, worth 400￡, coming from France. There are several original miniature oil paintings- each amounting to the price of a life-size original.

Watch a brief Mulvany & Rogers video on this project.

 
Susan
P.S. Thanks to Erica Capuano who gave me the idea for this post.