Here we have Uppark's dolls' house, an exquisite 18th century house of the highest stature in craftsmanship.
It is one of two that are in the National Trust collection but is regarded
as one of the best surviving 18th century dolls house in the world.
Inside this house there are 400 objects and they range from silver cutlery to lead glass,
from exquisite textiles to even a bed warmer. These miniatures are made at the same level
of craftsmanship from their life-size counterparts found in any mansion of the 18th century.
Today we think of a doll's house as being something for children but that was not its purpose.
Its purpose was to teach young women from wealthy families household management.
This house has got nine rooms in it representing everything from bedrooms to the drawing room,
dining room and below stairs so the kitchen, the parlour, the entrance hall and in each one they are
furnished with the appropriate objects, everything from paintings to porcelain, carpets and upholstery
and that allowed each young woman to learn about the care of those objects.
One of the most remarkable things about this house is the level of detail in house management.
So there are these glass cowls which are the protection against the smoke from the candles.
There are also paintings, typical landscape subjects of the 17th century and the style and
subject matter is sufficiently varied that it's clear that they were painted by different artists.
Amongst the objects in this house are four extraordinary beds. These now are nearly 300 years old
and not surprisingly these organic materials are beginning to degrade, so these very precious beds
were taken out of the house and brought to the Textile Conservation Studio in Norfolk.
When they first come in, we documented everything and then we moved on to surface cleaning.
So we vacuumed and then used a polyurethane sponge on some of the surfaces
to remove further dirt. Some of the items could be wet cleaned. The object is placed
into a plastic tray and then we do a pre-soak so we can release any cellulose degradation
and then when we're applying the conservation grade detergent, we use a fine sponge.
We work over the object methodically to try and release any soiling that's been deposited over the years.
Often doing conservation work, it allows you to look at the object really closely
and you discover things as you're working. We were very excited with the red and yellow bed
when we saw the top of the tester because the card on there is uncut playing cards that they used,
which was really lovely to see the designs. That was a real find for us.
Once we've finished our conservation they're packed up ready for transport back to the property.
We have to be quite careful with packing so we use acid-free tissue, soft pads and bubble wrap rolls
and we try and keep them as safe as possible in the boxes so they don't move around on transport.
The conservation doesn't finish there. We've been doing condition checks of every object
in the house and over the coming months and years we'll be taking equally good care
with conservation treatment of every object to make sure that it's maintained for generations to come.