Tableware fit for a Queen goes up for auction

MINIATURE tableware designed for a royal doll's house at Britain's Windsor Castle went up for auction on Tuesday along with a full sized dinner service made for French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

The sale, by the British company that created the items, also includes glassware celebrating the coronations of Queen Elizabeth II, George VI and even Edward VIII, who abdicated before his coronation shortly after the glass was engraved.

The tiny collection of 76 porcelain plates, tureens, bowls and platters was commissioned for Queen Mary, the grandmother of current Queen Elizabeth II, and included three dinner services for the doll's house state dining room, nursery and kitchen.

Thomas Goode & Co, who have been selling tableware across Europe for nearly 200 years, made a spare for its archive at the time - 1922; that is the set now being auctioned with a price estimate of 20,000 pounds to 30,000 pounds ($27,000-$40,000).

The dinner service made for Napoleon I and hand painted in the royal porcelain factory in Sevres near Versailles comes with a George III mahogany table and a St Louis chandelier. The assembly is estimated at up to 450,000 pounds in the online auction, which will conclude on January 8, 2021.