Pair of spoons with tea leaf motif, silver - Model created in Japan to the Western market - circa 1895

Source : musée d'Orsay

The most expensive dolls’ house in the world, the Astolat Dollhouse Castle, created by miniaturist Elaine Diehl between 1974 and 1987. It is 9 feet in height, has 29 rooms and about 30,000 miniatures pieces in its collection, but the displays are rotated and only about 10,000 are displayed at any one time. The house was inspired by Tennyson’s ‘Lancelot and Elaine’, which begins with the words ‘Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable, Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat’. Its’ great price (officially valued at $8.5 million) is mostly due to the unique, hand-crafted objects, many made out of costly materials such as gold and lapis lazuli and commissioned from famous artists. Furnishings include original sculptures and oil paintings, portrait miniatures, hand-sewn tapestries, silverware, a working dumbwaiter, carved mouldings, chandeliers, mirrors, inlaid bathrooms, parquet floors, and hand etched wood panels. It also contains the smallest antique Bible in the world.

Victorian Cut Glass Decanters