In the Museum of London is the Blackett baby house, believed to have been a gift by Sir Edward Blackett to his wife Anne on the birth of their two younger children William and Mary c.1758. Models such as these were intended for display, rather than to be played with by the children of the household. They were frequently commissioned as miniature replicas of real houses, and the dolls house, other than its lowest floor, displays some slight resemblance to Newby Hall, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, which had been rebuilt by Sir Edward’s grandfather in the 1690s and sold by Sir Edward in 1748.
The dolls house was presented to the museum in 1912 by Ida Frances Blackett, a great-granddaughter of Sir Edward and Lady Anne Blackett.
Image courtesy and copyright of the Museum of London.