Summary

Set of five blue rimmed dining plates. Two large round, two smaller round and one oval.

This dinner set is similar to a series of toy plates that were collected for a doll's house between 1925-1935, which is held in the National Museum of Australia (accession number 2013.0038.0425). Therefore, the set probably dates to around this time.

Part of a dolls' house, built around 1920 by Neil McArthur for his much younger half-sister Elizabeth (Beth) Twycross, born in 1917. Neil made the doll's house out of found materials including cigar boxes; he also made many of the furnishings in the doll's house. Some of the contents of the doll's house may date back to the 1860s, played with by ancestor Charlotte Twycross; most date to either the 1920s or the 1940s-50s. In the early 1950s the donor was given the spruced-up doll's house as a birthday present by her parents. In later years her own daughter later added items, although she wasn't allowed to play due to its fragility.

Physical Description

Set of five dining plates. Two larger round with roughly painted blue rims. Cream painted centre and underside with losses. Two smaller round plates with roughly painted blue rims and unpainted centre. Remants of cream paint in centre and on underside of both, suggesting these surfaces were originally painted. Unpainted surfaces tarnished. Oval plate upainted centre. Roughly cream painted underside with considerable losses. Unpainted surfaces tarnished.

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