The wider view: A miniature homage to the palace of Versailles that would make Marie Antoinette proud

By Mail On Sunday Reporter

Miniature palace: Kevin Mulvany and Susie Rogers spent six months crafting the five-room house which is a homage to the Palace of Versailles

With precise attention to detail, this exquisitely crafted miniature of a French 18th Century Hotel Particulier, or grand private house, is a homage to the Palace of Versailles and would please even Marie Antoinette.

Made by husband-and-wife team Kevin Mulvany and Susie Rogers, who specialise in architectural miniatures, it was commissioned for £70,000 by an American woman with a passion for France.

Kevin and Susie, of Holt, Wiltshire, spent six months crafting the five-room house

They recreate marble, stone and brick using trompe-l’oeil paint techniques, gilding and French polishing. Rooms can be taken out and rearranged.

Columns and chimneypieces are added separately and are carved in limewood, plaster and resins. The Versailles-style parquet floors contain over 5,000 individual pieces.

Susie says: ‘Our pieces aren’t lifeless models. We aim to recreate a real sense of atmosphere; to give the feeling that someone has only just left the room. We research the building from books and old plans, make site visits to photograph and sketch, then build the structure in wood.’

The top floor is largely incomplete. ‘It’s as if a family has just moved in and the furniture is still in the wrong place,’ says Susie. On the left is a study with a chair and mirror.

The middle room is the boudoir, or private sitting room, and includes a mid-18th Century commode which cost £700 alone.


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It is made of satin wood and based on a rococo original. On top is a £400 working brass and glass lantern made in France.

A metal cat is draped over the limewood parquet flooring. The chairs are covered with silk. The porcelain teacups were made and hand-painted by Susie.

The third room is the main bedroom. The rococo four-poster bed is made of intricately carved limewood painted cream and covered with blue silk hangings. Two large mirrors are on the floor, resting against double doors.

Downstairs, Susie is looking on to the hallway. In one hand she holds an antique marble copy of the Three Graces statute, which will sit in the alcove by the stairs. A brass lantern is in her other hand.

The balustrade is made of gilded metal. The staircase is wood painted to resemble stone and the floor is plaster painted to look like marble.

The middle room is a grand 18th Century salon. A harp made of wood, carved with roses on the top and with strings made of thread, has pride of place. One of a pair of matching commodes sits beside the fireplace.


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An elaborate metal table with a trompe-l’oeil marble top is against the side wall. Two porcelain vases, copies of Sevres originals, are on top. The portrait of a lady oversees the room.

The fireplace is a copy of one in Versailles, with cherubs carved on its side panels.

The clock is a working watch and several Sevres-style figurines sit above the fireplace.

The chairs and love-seat are gilded wood covered with antique tapestry. The neoclassical table is made of wood with a central pedestal that looks like a quiver of arrows.

The dining room on the bottom right – moved from its usual position for display purposes – is based on Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors. All the mirrored panels are of polished steel. The large brass chandelier lies on the floor.


source: dailymail