TITANIA’S PALACE

Southland Times, Issue 22917, 16 June 1936, Page 8

TITANIA’S PALACE

A WONDERLAND IN MINIATURE AID FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN Invercargill people will soon be flocking— as others have’ flocked in northern cities—to see that wonderland in miniature known as Titania’s Palace. The palace will be displayed in the lounge of H. and J. Smith, Ltd., and the official opening will take place on Saturday. The display will be open to the public from Monday, June 22, until July 10. The entire proceeds of the exhibition are to be handed over to the Invercargill branch of the Crippled Children’s Society. Wherever the palace is shown, one room that always attracts attention is the dining room, the central feature of which is a tiny table 200 years old, bearing a unique dinner service of Bristol glass of a similar age. The table is of a walnut veneer, obtained from the case of an ancient clock. The room itself is surrounded by a high dado of gold canvas, above which is a broad band of pale grey wall. On this band there are nine exquisite landscape paintings, chiefly snow scenes, by Claes Molinaer, who painted about the middle of the seventeenth century. The fireplace is made of Connemara marble crowned by a bronze hood, on which Is modelled Saint George and the dragon. The floor- is inlaid with strips of satin walnut.

The chairs round the table are Chippendale style, their seats being of Bargello work. A bronze jar stands behind the first window. A tiny model of a ship stands near the centre window, and below, on the right, is Pandora’s famous box, executed in Chinese lacquer. The tables on either side of the main doorway bear effigies of the Red Knight and the White Knight from “Alice in Wonderland,” inlaid in coloured woods. The plate includes two tankards, one of silver and the other of gold, and a cruet stand complete in every detail. An ebony day bed of the Jacobean period stands before the fireplace. It was originally designed to carry some needlework by the Duchess of Albany, destined for a German exhibition. It now serves as a fitting frame for a wonderful piece of drawn needlework. Two cases contain some of the most remarkable specimens of “tinycraft” ever made, notable being a pair of silver equestrian figures, probably made fox’ a royal prince of France to commemorate the victories of the great Conde in the seventeenth century. The palace was officially opened in 1922 by her Majesty the Queen. Occupying an area of 63 square feet, Titania’s Palace is 30 inches high and contains 16 rooms. In the rooms are to be seen tiny objects of exquisite detail and great artistic value—a world-wide collection which has taken years and years to assemble. Also there are some of the most perfect specimens of modern craftsmanship in miniature ever produced by human hands.