This house and many of it contents were built in 1912, over a period of three years, by Percy Platnauer. Percy was a jeweller and watchmaker based in Birmingham.
This house was made for his daughter, Ida, and was accordingly named Idaville. The house remained with Ida until she was in her 80’s.
Charlotte Manford was an avid collector of dolls houses and furniture. Charlotte had bought Welford Grange from an antique shop and she immediately fell in love with it. She knew nothing of its origin until one fateful day…
She had been exhibiting Welford Grange at a small dolls house show when someone approached her and said that they recognised the house. They mentioned the name ‘Platnauer’ but couldnt remember anything more than that. Luckily, Platnauer is a very unusual surname and only one listing appeared in the phone book at the time. This was Ida Platnauer’s phone number! They met for a tea and Ida told her that Welford Grange was made by her uncle, George Platnauer, around 1915 for his niece, Betty Platnauer. Charlotte was understandably overjoyed to find this out. Ida kindly gave her some photos of George and Betty for her dolls house history file. It was then that Ida mentioned her own dolls house. Idaville. Charlotte fell in love again! Ida and Charlotte built up a friendship, and all their correspondence was archived to the history file. One of the letters tells of when Ida decided to offer Charlotte her dolls house, knowing that it would go into such loving hands. Ida was right; Charlotte cherished it until her death in 2014.
Ref: DE031