If you missed to read our post about $8,5 million Astolat Dollhouse Castle, don’t worry. Here is a little reminder and information that this world’s most expensive dollhouse was shipped to the Time Warner Center On November 12th, where is on display for the first time. It took 13 years for Elaine Diehl, a celebrated miniature artist, to build this most valuable dollhouse in the world, worth a staggering $8.5million. That works out about $288,000 per square foot, which makes luxurious apartments in prestigious Mayfair, Marylebone and Soho sound cheap, where the average price per square foot is about $5,000.
The dollhouse takes its name after the castle in The Lady of Shallot, a 19th-century ballad by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Since the beginning of its construction in 1980s, the dollhouse has been updated and thousands of new furnishings and fixtures have been added. A silver flatware set, for instance, is said to be worth $5,000, a tiny baby grand piano valued at over $7,000, a drop-leaf secretary bookshelf valued at up to $2,500 or a miniature Hebrew Torah worth up to $2,500 among many others.
This hand-made structure has 29 rooms, hallways, corridors and sitting areas. It also features a Wizard’s tower, wine cellar, chapel, Knights of Columbus room, garage, kitchen, marble hallways, bathrooms, balconies, towers, and a ballroom.
Some of the finer touches include hand-stitched tapestries, vases in real lapis lazuli, and replica 18th-century oil paintings – such as the postage-size reproduction of Thomas Lawrence’s Pinkie, displayed on the wall of the salon.
When delivered to the Time Warner Center, it shipped in 66 boxes and took more than 20 hours to assemble. It stands 9 feet tall and weighs more than 800 pounds. Because it spent its life indoors, the copper roofs haven’t developed a green patina.
The Astolat Dollhouse Castle is on Public display with all proceeds going to charities for children from November 12, 2015 and ending at the date December 8, 2015.