POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Handmade doll's house made by Yootha Rose, England, 1945-1970

Object No. H8765

This miniature furnished dolls house is one of a group of toys in the Museum's collection made by the English toy maker, Yootha Rose, between 1945 and 1970. Yootha Rose crafted handmade and hand-painted wooden toys during the second half of the twentieth century including pull-along carts, carousels, wishing wells, Noah's arks, zoos, Punch and Judy shows and even rabbit warrens with hidden bunnies. For some 25 years she made toys for Britain's Royal family. Yootha was born in Australia in 1899 the daughter of Charles Rose a singer who had performed with Dame Nellie Melba. She was involved in the theatre from a young age and at eighteen moved to England with her family and became a stage performer. Later she undertook costume and stage designs for musical productions. During the Second World War Yootha taught at a boy's school in Dorset and it was there that she began making her wooden toys due to the lack of their availability during wartime austerity in England. Her toys 'roughly hewn but richly detailed…[were] a beguiling blend of the primitive and the sophisticated'. They depict a genteel post-Edwardian world where toy children are accompanied by toy nannies. In 1945 a selection of her toys were exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition 'Britain can Make It' and from then on orders began to roll in. During the 1940s and 1950s she was commissioned to make a doll's house for Princess Anne, a carousel for Prince Charles and a miniature village for the children of Princess Alexandra, the Queen's first cousin. Strongly against the mechanised production of toys, Yootha resisted all attempts to mass produce her work. This ensured its vitality and, combined with their bold colouring, vigorous carving and an imaginative use of materials, saw her work full of fantasy and childlike delight. As well as timber, Yootha used everyday items for her creations including cotton reels for hot air balloon baskets and gold-coloured doilies provided gilt for the dresses of paper angels. John Alden at Britain's Hove Museum and Art Gallery says 'the fantasy element in her work may be considered as a reinterpretation of childhood through adult eyes, explaining why her work has such a strong appeal to the collector'. Yootha was not restricted to toy making but contributed greatly to the preservation, presentation and promotion of antique toys. In 1952 she was appointed a trustee of the National Toy Museum and seven years later became its Honorary Curator. In 1956 she was a founding member of the British Toymakers Guild and organised a number of solo exhibitions at galleries and museums. Yootha had married a Mr Phillips but by 1978 was a widow living in Brighton, Sussex, while grandchildren lived in Australia. At this time she resided in a three-storey house filled with toys. Teddy bears sat on the stairs, Chinese mobiles hung from the ceiling and 100 year dolls rested against the walls. Alden, John, blog post 'Toys 'r' Me', Brighton Museum. http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2015/01/07/toys-r-me/ Salmans, Sandra, 'Craftsmanship in Toys Meets Royal Tastes' in 'Toledo Blade', 4 July 1978, p.9. Margaret Simpson, Curator December 2015