Title in Caroline Armington’s etching record book: Pont Royal, Paris – Plate made for album for the dolls’ house for the Queen of England’’

Year: 1922

Number: 289

Size: 2.5 x 3.8 cm

States: 4

Title on Print: titled in pencil ‘’Le Pont Royal, Paris - Etched for the dolls’ house for the Queen of England’’ or, ‘’Pont Royal, Paris - Etched for the dolls’ house for the Queen of England’’.

Others, not titled.

Initials or Signature and Date in Plate: None

Planned Edition: 100

Total Number of Impressions: 126

Numbers in Pencil:

2e etat 7/12 with dedication ‘’To dear Frank from c.a.’’

5/100 with dedication ‘’ To dear, Little Evelyn, ‘’Pont Royal, Paris’’ done for the Queen’s doll House, 1923, affectionately from Frank, 1940.’’

75/100, Le Pont Royal, Paris, Etched for the Dolls House for the Queen of England, 1924

81/100 Le Pont Royal, Paris, Etched for the Dolls House for the Queen of England

100/100 ‘’Le Pont Royal, Paris, Etched for the Dolls House for the Queen of England’’

One ‘Etched for the dolls house for the Queen of England, to Carrie Smith from ‘’Carrie”, not numbered.

One ‘’Pont Royal, Paris’’ etched for the Queen of England Doll House in 1923. To Miss Agnes Porter with best wishes from Frank. 19 of July 1941.’’ Not numbered.

One ‘’State’’, "To dear Frank from c.a." not titled.

One ''State'' not titled.

Two, not numbered, not signed, not titled.

One, signed, not titled, not numbered (in the dolls house)

47, 53/100 not titled

Signature in Pencil: Caroline Armington; two, not signed.

Dedications:

One ‘’ To Carrie Smith from ‘’Carrie”’’

Two "To dear Frank from c.a.’’

‘’ To dear, Little Evelyn, ‘’Pont Royal, Paris’’ done for the Queen’s doll House, 1923, affectionately from Frank, 1940.’’

‘’Pont Royal, Paris’’ etched for the Queen of England Doll House in 1923. To Miss Agnes Porter with best wishes from Frank. 19 of July 1941.’’

Caroline Armington’s etching record book contains the following notes for this print:

Size 1 x 1 ½ inches

1st state 10 prints no 1 to 10

2nd state 12 prints no 1 to 12

3rd state 2 prints

4th state ‘’ omnibus? on bridge’’

Number 1 to 91 and 96 to 100

3 for Frank not counted?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx? 92

1 for Mrs Rowe?

Price in Caroline Armington’s etching record book: None. This print is not in the list in the etching record book.

Plate: The plate is now in a private Montreal collection 

Collections:

British Museum, London, UK

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France

Royal Collection Trust, UK

PAMA, Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives, Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Exhibitions:

CSE annual exhibition 1924, miniature exhibit.

Publications:

Caroline and Frank Armington, Canadian Painter-Etcher in Paris, Janet Braide and Nancy Parke-Taylor, Art Gallery of Peel, 1990.

Bertha E. Jaques and the Chicago Society of Etchers, Joby Patterson, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.

Comments:

• This etching is not in the list in Caroline Armington’s etching record book.

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• In her sales book Caroline Armington recorded selling this print in 1922 and 1923 for 25 f. 

 

• The Queen Mary's Dolls' House is the largest, most beautiful and most famous dolls' house in the world. Built between 1921 and 1924 for Queen Mary, consort of George V, grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, by the leading British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, it includes contributions from over 1,500 of the finest artists, craftsmen and manufacturers of the early twentieth century.

 

The house was the concept of Princess Marie Louise, cousin to King George V and childhood friend of Queen Mary. She decided that the queen, who loved all things diminutive and decorative, would enjoy the house and it was to become a gift to Queen Mary in the years after the First World War.

The architect was Sir Edwin Lutyens, a friend of the princess. Between them, they created a committee that decided on the style of the house and ensured that all its contents were of the highest possible quality and all perfectly to scale.

To procure the art collection for Queen Mary's Dolls' House, Princess Marie Louise contacted 700 notable artists of the day, asking them to donate drawings, watercolours, sketches, etchings, lino prints and engravings. While some pieces were intended to adorn the walls, others were to be laid flat and stored in two cabinets in the library and drawers in the basement. The received artworks totalled 750 and covered a vast range of subjects and styles. Today those not on the walls are kept in the Print Room at Windsor Castle.

The house was to be shown at the Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. The house was displayed at Wembley for seven months and over this period more than 1.5 million people visited it. In July 1925 it was moved to Windsor Castle, where it was situated in a room designed by Lutyens and where it can be visited today.

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• The ''Odyssey'' of the Pont Royal Copper Plate

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In 1922, Caroline Armington etched "Pont Royal, Paris" destined for Queen Mary’s Dolls' House.

She kept the plate and when she fled Paris for New York in 1939 on the eve of World War II, the plate went with her.

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Following Caroline’s death in 1939, her husband, Frank Armington, preserved the plate.

In 1940, Frank had the plate mounted as a brooch. He got it engraved with a dedication on the back:

“To Dear Little Evelyn, etched plate ‘Pont Royal, Paris’ by her cousin Caroline Armington for the Queen’s Doll House, 1923. Affectionately from Frank. April 1940.”​

He offered it in 1940 to Ann Lownsbury for her 5th birthday.

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Ann Lownsbury (1935-2015) was Evelyn Thomas’s daughter, a close cousin to Frank and for reasons that remain a mystery, Frank affectionately called little Ann by her mother's name, "Little Evelyn."

 

Decades later, when Evelyn died in 1999, Ann Lownsbury inherited her mother's  art collection.

While Ann sold several prints to collectors over her lifetime, the unique copper brooch remained her prized, untouched possession.

 

Ann, a first-grade teacher who never had children of her own, formed a lifelong bond with one of her students, a girl who would grow up to become Mrs. D.B. of Advance, North Carolina. Ann became a maternal figure to Mrs. D.B. and a grandmother to her children.

When Ann passed away in 2015, Mrs. D.B. stepped in to care for Ann’s disabled widower. He sold many pieces from the Armington art collection, but he did not part with the brooch.

Upon his passing, Mrs. D.B. inherited the remaining estate, including the Pont Royal copper plate brooch. In 2025, she began parting with the final pieces of the historic collection, selling several Caroline Armington prints and Frank Armington paintings.

That same year, the historic copper plate brooch was sold to a private collector in Montréal, completing its long journey from Paris to Canadian hands.

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• Mrs. Rose Tuller.

 

Interestingly, in 1950, one print of this etching was given by Rose Tuller to Princess Elizabeth (the Queen Elizabeth II of England) for the birth of Princess Anne by Rose Tuller.

She also donated one unsigned print of this etching in 1978 to the British Museum, London.

We have found evidences that in the early fifties Rose Tuller had in her possession at least five prints of this etching. A note written by one lady who purchased one of them from her collection, seems to indicate that in 1939, in Paris, while she was preparing for her move to the USA, Caroline Armington gave some of her prints to Rose Tuller for selling in the United States.

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• Statement from the Royal Collection Trust about the print; ‘’Commissioned for the Library in Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House’’.

 

Interestingly, it can be noted that it seems that Caroline Armington was not originally invited or commissioned by Princess Mary Louise to submit her work but that she did it at the suggestion of her husband (Frank Armington).

Frank Armington’s submittal letter is dated September 21st, 1922 and refers to Princess Mary Louise’s request/invitation of August 6th.

Caroline Armington’s submittal letter to Princess Mary Louise is dated October 3rd, 1922.

These letters are in the Queen's Dolls' House Correspondence of the Bryn Mawr College Library, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.

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• Janet Braide and Nancy Parke-Taylor Caroline and Frank Armington, Canadian Painter-Etchers in Paris and published by the Art Gallery of Peel in 1990.

 

Page 50, ‘’….In 1921-22 both Frank and Caroline contributed miniature works to the exquisitely crafted Queen Mary’s Doll’s House.’’

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This was in 1922. Caroline Armington’s submittal letter to Princess Mary Louise is dated October 3rd, 1922. Frank Armington’s submittal letter is dated September 21st, 1922 and refers to Princess Mary Louise’s request/invitation of August 6th. Interestingly, it can be noted that it seems that Caroline Armington was not originally invited by Princess Mary Louise to submit her work but that she did it at the suggestion of her husband (Frank Armington).

 

• McKenzie Brockman, Caroline (1875–1939) and Frank (1876–1941) Armington ([Deux-Montagnes, Québec], 1985).

 

‘’In 1921 Caroline was commissioned by Princess Marie Louise of England to do a tiny Paris etching for Queen Mary’s doll house.’’

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This was in 1922. Caroline Armington’s submittal letter to Princess Mary Louise

is dated October 3rd, 1922. Frank Armington’s submittal letter is dated September 21st, 1922 and refers to Princess Mary Louise’s request/invitation of August 6th. Interestingly, it can be noted that it seems that Caroline Armington

was not originally invited or commissioned by Princess Mary Louise to submit

her work but that she did it at the suggestion of her husband (Frank Armington).

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