legends · 5 min read ·
Lot 214, Estate of the Late Mrs. A. Varley
A Victorian doll's house is sold at auction, and a figure in it keeps being tucked in by someone.
**Hartwell & Crane Auctioneers — Sale 88, Contents of Fenwick House**
*Viewing by appointment. All lots sold as seen. Buyers must collect within 14 days.*
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**Lot 201.** Edwardian mahogany sideboard, brass handles, two drawers. Some veneer loss to the left door. Interior drawers contain paper linings from 1911.
**Estimate:** £120–180
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**Lot 207.** Set of six dining chairs, oak, ladder backs. Good original condition. Seat pads re-covered in green velvet, recently.
*Condition note (cataloguer):* The fifth chair has a wet patch on the seat pad. Cause not identified. Pad is dry to the touch. Chair is also warm.
**Estimate:** £200–300
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**Lot 214.** Doll's house, Victorian, approximately 1880. Four rooms, one staircase. Front opens on hinges. Furnished throughout with original miniature pieces.
*Condition note:* The house is in very good condition. The furniture is arranged inside each room, and at least one piece appears to have been moved since the catalogue photographs were taken. The cataloguer was asked not to move it. The cataloguer did not move it.
*Provenance:* Fenwick House, Mrs. A. Varley. The family letter of 1911 accompanying the lot reads: *The little ones are fond of their dolls. Please keep the stair clear, as the dolls like to go up and down at night.*
**Estimate:** £400–600
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**Lot 214 — viewing note (recorded by Jack Holloway, valuer, 9 October)**
I went up to Fenwick House to see the doll's house in situ before the sale. It had been left in the old nursery on the second floor, which was cold and smelled of talc. The house sat on a low table under the window with its front open.
Every room was furnished. In the kitchen, a tiny copper pan sat on a tiny stove, and a tiny loaf stood on a board, sliced, with one slice missing. In the parlour, a miniature clock showed twenty to three. In the bedroom, a small figure in a grey dress lay under a blanket with its face turned toward the window.
I looked at the figure for some time. It was made of wax and wire, with painted eyes. It had been carefully posed. When I stood up to leave, I saw that the blanket had been pulled a little higher, as if someone had tucked it in.
On the stairs of the doll's house, one step was not in its proper place. It was lying on the landing, face down, the way a step falls when someone has knocked it off a shelf.
I left it there. I didn't want to touch anything in that room.
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**Lot 214 — bidder registration (online), 12 October**
**Name:** Eleanor Varley (granddaughter)
**Maximum bid:** £600
**Note:** I'd like to bid on the doll's house. I grew up in Fenwick House and I left it when I was sixteen. I was never allowed to touch the house, because my grandmother said the dolls had to be kept in order. I'd like to buy it back.
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**Lot 214 — sale result (14 October)**
*Sold to Eleanor Varley, £600.*
*Collection: to be arranged.*
**Buyer's note (Eleanor Varley, 15 October):** The house arrived at my flat in a van this morning. I unpacked it on the living-room floor. Every piece had been put back exactly as the valuer described. The loaf had one slice missing. The clock showed twenty to three.
I went to check the bedroom. The figure in the bed was turned toward the window, and the blanket was tucked in.
I didn't touch the figure. I stood there and I remembered being sixteen. I remembered my grandmother saying the dolls were tired, and must not be woken, and that I should be in my room by ten because the stairs had to be kept clear for them.
I remembered that I used to sit on the landing at night, outside the nursery door, because I was afraid of going in. And that someone always came and laid a blanket over my knees. I never saw who.
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**Collection report (Hartwell & Crane, 16 October)**
Buyer reports the doll's house has been returned to the auction room. Buyer states she could not keep it in her flat. She says that each night the house is closed, and each morning it is open, and that one piece of furniture has moved. The bedroom figure is always found turned to the window.
Buyer states she has been unable to sleep. She reports that a small voice in the flat calls her name from the direction of the house.
The house has been added to the next sale as a lot. We have declined to describe the condition.
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**Lot 214 — updated catalogue entry, Sale 91**
**Doll's house, Victorian, approximately 1880. Four rooms, one staircase.**
*Condition note:* The figure in the bedroom has been replaced with a new figure, the same size and in the same grey dress. The original figure has been returned to the family. It was found in the stairwell of Fenwick House, lying face up on the top step, with its hands folded and a blanket over its legs.
The stair is clear now. Nothing is on it.
**Estimate:** £400
*Bid placed by: Eleanor Varley (anonymous).*
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**Buyer's note (Eleanor Varley, 9 December)**
I didn't bid. I was in my flat when the auction closed. But I know who did. The house came to me this morning in the same van, with the same tag, and the same handwritten note in my grandmother's hand taped to the roof.
*The little one has been alone long enough. Please keep the stair clear.*
I have put the house in my childhood bedroom, against the wall, under the window. I've tucked the blanket in. I've left the landing light on.
I can hear the stairs creak in the night. They creak in the right order, from the bottom up, like someone who has been told she must be in bed on time, and is only just now allowed to come home.