Complete and very uncommon set of 14 signed miniature engravings of Royal Castles and famous buildings in London and the Home Counties by Frank Willis, A.R.E., who was born and died in Windsor, but also lived in Kent. The miniature artworks were commissioned by Princess Marie Louise as a contribution to the Library of Her Royal Highness, Queen Mary's Dolls' House. 643 artists representing the best in their field/artistic pulse of the nation in the UK gave 774 works on paper for the Library's cabinets. This collection has tremendous significance for the understanding of British art in the early 1920's and there is no other comparable collection of works on paper in existence. Willis was the student and son-in-law of the engraver Charles William Sharpe (1818–1899). From 1891 to 1895, Willis studied under Carl Ernst Forberg as the only student in his engraving class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. His etchings were exhibited between 1894 and 1898 in the Eduard Schulte Gallery at Alleestraße 42 in Düsseldorf and he was an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. A letter from Willis to a Mrs. Williams, dated 1923, stated that several sets of the engravings were printed, but that he felt unwilling to monetise them "as a matter of courtesy" - any duplicate sets were given away for one guinea, the cost of printing them, to a few friends of his wife in Berkshire. Everyone who acquired a set had to give their words that they would only show them in their own homes to their own private firends. Of the roughly nine or so sets printed, about four, appear to have survived, including this one, and the one at Windsor Castle. (Royal Collection Trust inv. no. RL 27512).