A few years ago, I bought my first 1:12 scale doll’s house. I built it from a kit and decorated and furnished it in a Victorian style.
Now, I am ready to start a new project… a Victorian general store including green grocery, bakery, dry goods and hardware departments.
The shop front and room box have been purchased and are waiting to be put together and decorated. I can’t wait to be at the stage when I can start working on the interior fittings and decorative elements.
I will use this blog to record the whole project and post regular updates on each stage of the build.
I was very excited to receive a parcel from the Bookseller, Mrs Steele, this morning. It was my long awaited copy of Mrs Beeton’s every-day cookery and housekeeping.
Although I have been an avid reader of Mrs Beeton’s helpful and informative articles in The English woman’s domestic magazine, I am very happy to be the proud owner of this latest edition of her collected works.
My acquaintance, Mrs Lowe, has owned the first edition, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, since it was published some years ago. She often makes a point of reminding me at our ladies’ gatherings that any ‘good’ home should have a copy. She will now have to find another reason to admonish me at our luncheons.
The book provides wonderful advice on the essentials such as how to choose friends and acquaintances; how to dress; how to receive morning calls, seating guests at the dinner table, the duties of household staff and a vast collection of seasonal recipes for a range of social events. It is like having a wise friend who I may call on for advice at any hour without social embarrassment.
I have spent some time with Cook this afternoon examining the book. She had been instructed to prepare some of the recipes for our household for supper this evening. If my dear husband approves, I shall arrange a small dinner party for some of our friends to sample Mrs Beeton’s recommendations.
Books crafted by the very talented Patricia Steele
Today’s pen portrait is about a less well known Victorian character: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. It is thanks to my eldest son, that I learned of him and his many great works (and evil deeds …forced labour, atrocities, racism, double standards… you get the idea).
This man definitely deserves a two part blog, because not only did he leave a huge number of physical reminders in his home town of Bolton, he built an entire town from scratch with the the care of his employees in mind. (You’ll just have to wait for part 2 to read more about it!)
LORD LEVERHULME: PART 1
Early life
William Lever was born on the 9 September 1851 at 16 Wood Street, Bolton. Unusually, he was educated at small private schools, The Misses Aspinwall’s Private School, and Kay’s Private School until the age of nine, then at church school, the Bolton Church Institute. At fifteen, he started work as an apprentice at his father’s grocery business in Bolton.
The industrialist
Lever gradually worked his way up through the family firm in a series of roles, successfully expanding the business as he went.
In 1886, with his brother, James, he established Lever Brothers, one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils.
He began manufacturing Sunlight Soap, and went on to build a substantial business empire with well-known brands such as Lux and Lifebuoy. His business still trading as part of the Anglo-Dutch international company Unilever.
Sunlight soap
In 1884, Lever decided to capture a large share of the international soap market. His plan was to make and promote a range of high quality at a range of prices. Using ideas from his experience in trading butter, instead of selling soap by weight, he had The bulk product cut into small, individually wrapped tablets.
The 1875 Trade Mark Registration Act protected trade names from counterfeiters and imitators. Trademarks made brand recognition possible and encouraged consumer loyalty. Lever registered a number of trade marks, including ‘Sunlight’, that was later applied to a range of household soaps.
SUNLIGHT SOAP SIGN – SEE IT IN MY MINIATURE VICTORIAN STORE
The Sunlight branded soap range varied by colour: Pale, Mottled and Brown, and a fourth product for washing clothes. The ‘Sunlight Self-Washer Soap’ was advertised using billboards and posters throughout northern England.
Lever relied on small independent “soap-boilers”, who specialised in producing soap to order, for his supplies. The firms were expected to follow Lever’s soap formula but the results were inconsistant. Customers complained about the effectiveness, and even the smell, of Self-Washer.
In order to remedy this problem, Lever realised that he needed to take control of the soap production in order to ensure consistent quality. Lever found a small soap producer based in Warrington and persuaded his father and younger brother make a successful takeover bid. By August 1885, Lever and Company, had become wholesale grocers and soap manufactures.
SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THIS IN MY VICTORIAN STORE….
The Sunlight brand became hugely successful. By 1887, the demand for product had outgrown the capability of the plant in Warrington. With no room for expansion, Lever moved the entireHaving failed to either extend the site or find more space in the areas, Lever eventually decided to move the whole manufacturing facility to an 11 acres green-field site near Birkenhead. After establishing his main manufacturing operation in Cheshire he built the garden village community of Port Sunlight, to house and educate his workforce close to the new Sunlight Soap factory.
You will have to wait for chapter 2 of this Leverhulme blog to learn more about the fascinating town described by some as, “arguably the finest surviving example of early urban planning in the UK”.
The politician
William Lever sat as a Liberal MP for Wirral for a short period between 1906 and 1909. In his maiden speech in the House of Commons, he urged the government to introduce a national old age pension, such as the one he provided for his own workers.
He was created a baronet in 1911 and became a peer, Baron Leverhulme, on 21 June 1917. The addition of “hulme” to his title was in honour of his wife.
The art lover
An a patron of the arts, in 1893, Lever began collecting artworks. Lever’s soap industry rival, A & F Pears, were already known for using art for to advertise their products. Pears used paintings such as “Bubbles” by John Everett Millais to promote its products.
Lever responded by choosing similar artworks, such as ‘The New Frock’ by William Powell Frith, to promote his own soap products from the Sunlight brand.
Lever’s purchase of pictures for advertising fired a passion for buying works of art, and he was to build up the finest collection ever formed by an industrialist in England… Although his interests ranged widely, embracing English eighteenth-century paintings and furniture, French nineteenth-century sculpture, Chinese porcelain, masonic artifacts, and the Napoleonic memorabilia… the great strength of the collection lay in Victorian and Edwardian academic painting. He began his career as a serious collector in 1893 by buying a picture by Leighton, and when he died in 1925… he owned several major works by this artist together with comparable examples of Millais, Burne-Jones, Waterhouse, Orchardson, Herkomer, Draper, Fildes, Dicksee, Sargent, and many others. In 1913, the year he secured some of his greatest treasures… his wife died and he determined to build a museum in her memory. He was a great believer in the social and moral value of art, and in 1922, the Lady Lever Art Gallery was opened for the benefit of his firm’s workforce at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, in Cheshire.
Lord Lever was a committed supporter of expansion of the British Empire. He was keen to gain firm footholds in Africa and Asia as they were major suppliers of palm oil, an essential ingredient in his products. Despite his reputation for philanthropy in Britain, by 1911, Lever and his firm were associated with forced labour and atrocities in the Belgian Congo.
He had travelled to the Belgian Congo to establish palm oil plantations. Lever purchased 750,000 hectares from the Belgium rulers, who were cruel and brutal leaders. Some estimates put the human cost of Belgian control in the Congo at 10 million deaths. The Lever plantations were opened under a subsidiary named ‘Huileries du Congo Belge’. This subsidiary company was notorious for its use of forced labour. While this was not technically slavery, it was of little consequence to the thousands of Africans that died or suffered due to the horrific working conditions.
Lever’s attitudes towards the Congolese were paternalistic and racist, and his negotiations with the Belgian coloniser to enforce the system known as… forced labour are documented by Marchal: “Leverhulme set up a private kingdom reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labour, a program that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi holocaust.” As such, he participated in this system of formalised labour. The archives show a record of Belgian administrators, missionaries and doctors protesting against the practices at the Lever plantations.
In his defence, Lord Leverhulme did attempt to build African village versions of Port Sunlight for his own employees. But beatings and squalid conditions are the daily reality for many of the African workers.
On the 7th of May 1925, aged 73, Lord Leverhulme died of pneumonia at his home in Hampstead. His funeral was attended by 30,000 people. He is buried in the churchyard of Christ Church in Port Sunlight, Cheshire.
The tombs of Lord Leverhulme & his wife – they were survived by their only son.
Lever has left a lasting legacy in his home town of Bolton where he was a major benefactor and as a result was made a Freeman of the County Borough in 1902. In November 1918, Lord Leverhulme Was asked to become Mayor of Bolton because the council wanted to honour a “Notable son of the Town” as a mark of the high regard the citizens of Bolton had for him.
Mayor of Bolton
In 1899, he bought Hall i’ th’ Wood, the former home of Samuel Crompton, who was the inventor of the Spinning Mule which revolutionised the spinning ndustry. Lever restored it as a museum for the town.
He donated and landscaped 360 acres of land at Lever Park in Rivington in 1902. Lever was also responsible for the formation of Bolton School after re-endowing Bolton Grammar School and Bolton High School for Girls in 1913, on condition that they should be equal partners known as Bolton School (Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions).
As you can see from the image above, Lord Leverhulme’s Coat of arms includes a cockerel & trumpet (at the top of the crest). This element of his coat of arms and his motto still appear on the crest of Bolton School. The cockerel and trumpet represent a visual pun on the word ‘Lever’ being also French for ‘get up’.
Lever was also responsible for several other acts of philanthropy:
He donated the land for Bolton’s largest park, Leverhulme Park, in 1914.
endowed a school of tropical medicine at Liverpool University
gave Lancaster House in London to the British nation
endowed the Leverhulme Trust to provide funding for publications of education and research.
I have bought a ‘glass’ fronted mahogany coloured shop counter but wanted to personalise it. It has 2 internal shelves with a clear Perspex front & open back for easy access.
I had some left over green Dollshouse carpet (which I used to cover my fruit & veg display) & thought it would make nice lining for the interior shelves. I made a rough template from a piece of scrap cardboard, then used this to cut 4 pieces of carpet to size.
The carpet has shelf adhesive backing but this makes it difficult to position correctly in such a confined space. I used PVA glue instead so I could manoeuvre the pieces into the correct position before leaving them to dry.
Cake display…
I found some pretty little oval plastic plates on EBay which were perfect as trays for displaying a selection of small cakes and biscuits. It was a quick & easy job to arrange the items and then glue them into place.
The finished cake display/shop counter.
Paper dispenser…
When we visited a grocery store in a Victorian museum, I noticed that they had a large roll of brown paper in a dispenser on the counter for wrapping customer purchases. I wanted something similar & was shocked to see one for sale online for £15 without postage 🤦🏻♀️.
However, kitchen roll dispensers are widely available for less than £2! Cue, a mini make!
I bought this kitchen roll holder for £1.85. I unravelled & removed the tissue then gave the metal holder a few coats of black acrylic using an all purpose paint pen. There are still a few spots of red peeking through but it will do. I then cut a long strip of brown packing paper the width of of the central roll (if you have any sense, you will use the removed tissue as a template. Mine was already in the bin so I had to get the ruler out! 😂)
I looped this around the central roll and folded the piece in half before gluing the two halves together using a glue stick. You then carefully and as tightly as possible roll up the brown paper. Every centimetre or so, I added a bit more glue stick so that the roll doesn’t unravel & stays tightly rolled.
The shop shelving units were almost finished but there were a couple of finishing touches needed. I wanted to add a couple more shelves on the back wall to provide more storage above the fruit & vegetable display. I used 2 readymade long shelves (minus the brackets) which needed trimmed to size. I made some supporting brackets from wood off-cuts and glued them between the two single shelf units. Finally I added some skirting board as a trim along the top & Bottom edge.
Next I added the same skirting board along the top edge of the side shelving units. Trying to mitre cut the skirting board was a nightmare (I suspect that I own sharper spoons than the hacksaw I was using). I used a craft blade in the end. It’s far from perfect but it will suffice!
After adding a few more mirror panels to the central section of each unit, I think we are finished!
Time for a rest…
Meet William, the shopkeeper! He’s having a little sit down after all his hard work getting the shelves ready for produce. It must be difficult working under the weight of those fantastic eyebrows!
Next post: the shop counter
While you are waiting, why not browse the archives…
The boys were off school for the half-term holiday last week so the shop had to be put on the back burner. I did get to help two of my sons make a Roald Dahl themed project & a story shoe box for World book day.
With the shop box (mostly) finished, I made a start on the shop fixtures. I had bought 4 unfinished shelving units, a garden style shelf unit and a mahogany glass fronted display counter.
After a lot of thought, I decided to stain the unfinished shelves to match the counter as much as possible. I want a dark wood look which is similar to the style found in real Victorian stores.
I love those large numbered jars on the top shelf… I will need to make some!
I bought a small can of mahogany varnish and applied the first coat. The shelves are difficult to paint and you need to be patient. The last time I painted this type of shelf unit, I used a spray paint which was much quicker & easier to get into all the awkward spaces.
While asking for advice on one of the Dollshouse forums, a wonderful lady told me about furniture repair liquid. This can be brushed on, then the excess can be wiped off. The liquid comes in medium or dark (brown) shades. I will definitely be giving this a try in a future project.
I wasn’t impressed with the colour after the first coat & knew it was going to take a few more to get something similar to the counter unit. At this stage, I customised one of the triple shelf units by adding some fake drawers. This was just a piece of balsa wood glued across one of the shelf spaces. I then added 6 smaller pieces to resemble drawer fronts. Once the glue was dry, I could continue with the varnishing.
faux drawer fronts
After 4 costs, it wasn’t an exact match but I am happy with the colour of the shelves.
The last stage was to glue some brass style handles onto the fake drawer fronts.
I applied some green Dollshouse carpet to the fruit & vegetable rack to give a smart finish similar to greengrocers. I also added some mirror plastic to the back of some of the shelves to create a look similar to one I saw at Beamish Museum in the sweet shop. The mirror will add some light to the dark interior but the reflections will also make the shelves look more full.
the sweet shop display with mirror backed shelving
The (part) finished look…
Next steps…
Custom shelves (for above fruit & vegetable display rack)
apply skirting board trim to unify all shelving units
customise the counter unit & fill with produce (🍞🍰🍪)
by Maull & Polyblank, hand-tinted albumen print, 1857
Victorian household name.
Many people may have heard the name, Mrs Beeton, but may not know much about the woman it belonged to.
Early life
On the 12th of March 1836, the daughter of Benjamin Mayson and Elizabeth Jerram was born at number 24 Milk Street, in the Cheapside area of London. They named their child Isabella Mary. Sadly, within a few short years after Isabella’s birth, her father Benjamin died. Isabella’s mother was left as a widow with four daughters to support.
As there was no universal pension or benefit system in the nineteenth century, for many Victorian wives, the loss of their husband also meant the loss of their household income. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 entitled widows to ‘outdoor relief’ (assistance outside of the workhouse) for the first six months of their bereavement. This could have been in the form of money, medical help, food, coal, or clothes. However, in the long term, most women faced the prospect of remarriage as their only option of financial survival.
Luckily for Isabella, her mother Elizabeth married a widower Henry Dorling. He had four children from his prior marriage. The whole family moved to Epsom, Surrey where Henry Dorling worked as a clerk at Epsom Racecourse. The combined family grew to a total of twenty-one members with the births of 13 further children. According to Pauline Connolly, Epsom racetrack was…
…where Isabella’s interest in domestic affairs may well have begun. Her younger half brothers and sisters were virtually raised in cavernous quarters below the grand-stand, with Isabella assisting their nanny. She was also exposed to catering on a large scale, as meals for thousands of race-goers were prepared in the grand-stand’s kitchens.
After attending boarding school in Islington, Isabella was sent to school in Heidelberg, Germany, with her stepsister Jane Dorling. Isabella learned the piano, studied French and German and was taught pastry making.
Becoming Mrs Beeton
After completing her schooling, in 1854, she returned to London and took further lessons in pastry-making from a local baker in Epsom. It was here that she met Samuel Orchart Beeton, who was a publisher of books and magazines. He had also grown up on Milk Street & his mother was a good friend of Isabella’s mother.
Samuel Beeton
Isabella married Samuel in 1856 at Epsom Parish church. After their marriage, the couple moved into their first house at Chandos Villas in Hatch End. It was here that Isabella became involved in Samuel’s publishing business and began writing articles on cooking and household management. All of the recipes were taken from other popular works of the time or sent in by the magazine’s readers. Isabella also translated French novels for one of his publications.
Between 1859-1861 Isabella wrote a monthly supplement to ‘The English Woman’s Domestic Magazine’ and was responsible for ensuring that the magazine featured colour plates of the latest French fashions, which she collected herself on annual trips to Paris. These were provided by Adolphe Goubaud, the publisher of the French magazine Le Moniteur de la Mode. The Beetons’ magazine was aimed at young middle class women and was successful, selling 50,000 issues a month by 1856.
In 1861, the collected supplements were published as one volume entitled The Book of Household Management.
The reviews for Book of Household Management were positive. The critic for the London Evening Standard considered that Beeton had earned herself a household reputation, remarking that she had “succeeded in producing a volume which will be, for years to come, a treasure to be made much of in every English household”
This book was a major success and made Isabella famous as the Mrs. Beeton we still know today. The book sold 60,000 copies in the first year.
The project would never have seen the light of day if Isabella had listened to the wife of one of Sam’s friends, a Mrs English. Her response to Isabella’s proposed book was;
‘I see difficulties in your way as regards Publishing a Book of Cookery. Cookery is a Science that is only learnt by Long Experience and years of study which of course you have not had.(Therefore my advice would be compile a book from receipts from a Variety of the Best Books published on Cookery and Heaven knows there is a great variety for you to choose from.)
Undaunted, and despite the fact that she was now pregnant, Isabella began the massive task of research and recipe testing. Mrs English may have been right about the young Mrs Beeton’s inexperience but through the English Woman’s Domestic Magazine she was able to draw on the culinary resources of an entire nation.
I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it.
Isabella Beeton, Preface of the Book of Household Management
One of the sources of recipes used by the Beetons included Eliza Acton’s ‘Modern Cookery for Private Families’. However, the Beetons altered the layout of Acton’s recipes, instead of providing the method of cooking followed by a list of the ingredients, Isabella listed the components before the cooking process. This unique standardised layout of the recipes also showed the approximate costs of each serving, the seasonality of the ingredients and the number of portions per dish.
During the particularly bitter winter of 1858–59 Beeton prepared her own soup that she served to the poor of Pinner, “Soup for benevolent purposes”; her sister later recalled that Beeton “was busy making [the] soup for the poor, and the children used to call with their cans regularly to be refilled”. The recipe would become the only entry in her Book of Household Management that was her own
Following this success, Samuel Beeton started The Queen, which was a weekly magazine especially for women. The magazine was sold in 1862.
Isabella was working on an abridged version of The Book of Household Management, which was to be titled The Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery, when she died of puerperal fever in February 1865
a miniature copy of Isabella’s abridged book – I had to have a copy for my Victorian kitchen!
Isabella & motherhood
In 1857, Isabella gave birth to their first child who they named Samuel Orchart. Unfortunately, the boy died of croup at only a few months old.
In 1859, a second son was born. Again, they named him Samuel Orchart. Sadly, her second child died at the age of three years from scarlet fever. Isabella then suffered a series of miscarriages.
Despite the unfortunate death of their first two children, Isabella and Samuel later became parents to two more sons, Orchart born in 1863 and Mayson born in 1865.
However, after the birth of her fourth child, Isabella fell ill with puerperal fever. This was a common Postpartum infection in the Victorian era and was also known as childbed fever (a bacterial infection of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage). It usually occurred after the first 24 hours and within the first ten days following delivery. Within a week of contracting the fever, Isabella died, aged only 28 years old. She was buried at West Norwood Cemetery, South London.
Samuel Beeton never recovered from the grief of losing his wife and died twelve years later. He is buried with his wife and children.
With the arrival of my beautiful lights, I was able to finish the main part of the shop box last weekend. The lights came with an adhesive pad, so I could simply stick them to the ceiling then run their attached twin wires along the groove that I had made in the ceiling. A small notch, cut into the very edge of the ceiling & back wall panel, gave just enough space to thread the wires out of the back of the box where they can be attached to the power supply.
I love the finished effect. I have fitted the hook & eye fasteners, so can now attach the shop front but still need to fit the door handle & all important shop bell!
Next steps….
Door furniture.
Varnishing the shop shelves…. 4 coats of mahogany varnish coming up!
It wouldn’t be a real General store without a selection of sweets, after all the Victorians actually thought sugar was good for you!
Ready filled jars of sweets (or candy) are available to buy online from many suppliers but I wanted to make some myself. I started with a pack of 4 empty jars I (£1.85) and some nail art slices in sweet shapes.
The jar of liquorice all sorts was finished in seconds. I had a pack of 50 Allsort shaped slices purchased for £1.19. I just removed the cork, gently pushed the nail art slices inside and replaced the stopper. The total cost was £2.84 for this jar.
I took a little longer on the other jars. I had bought a pack of mixed chocolate slices for £1.80, so spent some time separating them into different types.
There were 13 different types of ‘chocolate’ so I sorted them into 3 groups before placing into separate jars.
Total cost for the three jars of chocolate: £3.80! A bargain. The jars could be more full but I figure that the shop will look more realistic if things look like customers have already been in to purchase some.
The Victorian era was a time of great innovation and technological advancement. Machinery, mass production and the lower cost of imported sugar also had an impact on the availability of sweets, making them less expensive and more widely available.
inside the sweetshop at Beamish Museum
Traditional Victorian Sweets offered for sale at the time would have included:
Fudge, Marzipan, Liquorice Allsorts, Jelly Babies, Brandy Balls, Clove Rocks, Pear Drops, Coconut Ice, Marshmallows, Bonbons, Chocolate Limes, Toffee or Wine Gums. There were also many sweets – especially in Britain, such as rose or violet lozengers, Lime Fruit, Twisted Barley Sugar, Strawberry Drops, Damson Drops, Chocolate Drops, Caramels or Chocolate Kisses.
The majority of these sweets would have been fairly recent innovations:
1847: The first dark or plain chocolate bar was made, but the milk chocolate bar was not created until 1875 when a chocolatier figured out he could add dried powdered milk without causing the chocolate to split.
1850: Marshmallows were invented.
1851: The Great Exhibition in London was responsible for introducing “French-style” sweets to Great Britain. These were hard boiled sweets with soft cream centres.
1869: Kendal mint cake was invented.Kendal Mint Cake is a sugar-based confection flavoured with peppermint. It originates from Kendal in Cumbria, England. Kendal Mint Cake is popular among climbers and mountaineers, especially those from the United Kingdom, as a source of energy.
1886: Fudge was accidentally invented in America
1893: First wine gums were sold. These sweets were aimed at at adults. Yet despite the alcohol inspired name, there is no wine involved in the making of these sweets.
1887: Seaside rock appeared.
The earliest form of rock is believed to have sold at fair grounds, namely Fair Rock… It was not brightly coloured or lettered in those days. It is said to be linked to Ben Bullock. He was an ex-miner from Burnley, who conceived the idea whilst holidaying in Blackpool. He began producing sticks of brightly coloured lettered candy at his Yorkshire-based sweet factory in 1887. Other sources say… Dynamite Dick from either Morecombe or Blackpool is said to have ‘borrowed’ the idea from Fair Rock and added lettering to the design to make it his own.
In 1899, liquorice allsorts began to appear in shops. Liquorice had been consumed since the early 17th century for medicinal purposes but it began to be eaten as a sweet after the invention of pontefract cakes. According to legend, Liquorice Allsorts had an unusual beginning: (Allegedly) a travelling salesman dropped his tray of liquorice samples during a sales pitch. The shopkeeper loved the assortment of shapes and colours of the sweets lying on the floor so much that he asked if these sweets could be made intentionally!
According to Magdalena at Cocoa & heart, Victorian’s believed that sugar was healthy and sweet advertising often refered to them as a wholesome. However, this ‘healthy’ and ‘wholesome’ trade also had a dark side. Despite the lower cost & wider availability of sugar, Victorian sweet traders had many tricks to reduce costs even further and increase their profits.
Sweets which were made from white sugar were often sold with plaster of Paris added in. Roasted almonds were often subsituted with kernels of fruits, such as peaches, apricots and nectarines. Other ingredients that were added to Victorian sweets included lime, alum, bullock’s blood, charcoal or acetate of soda. Oxide of leads was also mixed with the small proportions of sugar and used in making sweets like sugar plums.
The 1858 Bradford humbug poisoning involved the accidental arsenic poisoning of more than 200 people. Twenty people died and over 200 became seriously ill when sweets accidentally made with arsenic were sold from a market stall in Bradford, Yorkshire by William Hardaker, known locally as ‘Humbug Billy’.
To reduce costs, sugar was often mixed with cheaper substances such as powdered limestone and plaster of Paris and known as daft’. While not particularly tasty, ‘daft’ was safe. Unfortunately on this occasion, Humbug Billy’s supplier had accidentally purchased 12 pounds of arsenic trioxide instead of daft’. Nobody noticed the mistake during production and the finished sweets, mint humbugs, were sold on to traders such as Billy, reportedly containing enough arsenic to kill two people per humbug!
The shop box build is on pause while I wait for the light fittings to arrive, so I decided to start on some of the miniature props for inside the store. I’ve been looking forward to creating the fruit & vegetable display with the tiny baskets and loose items I purchased.
this is the type of display I want to recreate in 1:12th scale
Part 1: fruit & veg baskets
I began with some simple 3cm woven baskets (3 for £1.60) and a selection of fruits, vegetables & nuts. I carefully removed the nut crackers & wooden bowl, so I could just place the nuts into a matching basket. ( See my previous post, 5-a-day, for information on green grocer’s stock choices in the Victorian Era.)
I cut off the handles so that I can pile up the contents for clear display.
I painted the top edge and part of the inside (that will be visible) in a dark brown.
Then I painted all of the outside & left the baskets to dry.
The baskets are very light weight, so it is a good idea to fill the bottom of the basket with something like sticky tack or plasticene to give it some balance.
I then stuffed the top half of the basket with rough circles of corrugated cardboard to fill up the empty space & give a flat surface to display the fruits & vegetables. (See image below)
Finally, using all purpose glue, I arranged the chosen items on top of the basket & glued them firmly into place. Leave to dry thoroughly.
Part 2: potatoes & sack trolley
I began with 2 filled sacks (£1.99 for 6), some loose potatoes (£2.60) and a natural finish wooden trolley (£2.95).
Firstly, I opened the top of one of the sacks and removed a small about of wadding so I could insert the potatoes later.
The sacks were originally white, so I mixed up a sandy-beige /hessian colour paint and gave them an all over coat. Remembering to paint the inside edge of the open sack too.
Using a dark brown colour, I also painted the wooden trolley then left everything to dry.
As the sacks are stuffed with wadding, I also gave them a quick dry with the hairdryer to make sure they were fully dry.
I arranged the potatoes on top of the open sack & glued them into place with all purpose adhesive before leaving them to completely dry.
