About the Museum
Waddesdon Manor is a rare example of a French Renaissance chateau situated in the heart of the English countryside. It was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 19th century to display his burgeoning art collection (and as a place for extravagant entertaining). Today it houses the Rothschild collections of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. Furnishings include Savonnerie carpets and tapestries from the royal Gobelins and Beauvais workshops. The art collection features paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries by well-known Dutch, Flemish and French artists and portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney. Other highlights include a spectacular mechanical elephant, once a favourite of the Shah of Persia.
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Collection Highlights
Joshua ReynoldsMrs Abington as The Comic Muse, 1764-1768
Elephant automaton
Carpet, 1683
Suzanne de CourtPlaque depicting The Annunciation (detail), c.1600
Ferdinand's three Sevres pot-pourri vases in the shape of ships, 1761
