Waddesdon Manor

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire | United Kingdom

About the Museum

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Waddesdon Manor

  • Photo: Chris Lacey © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
    Interior View, Waddesdon Manor
  • Photo: Chris Lacey © National Trust,Waddesdon Manor
    Exterior View, Waddesdon Manor
  • Photo: Chris Lacey © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
    Interior View, Waddesdon Manor
  • Mike Fear © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
    Interior View, Waddesdon Manor
  • Mike Fear © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
    Interior View, Waddesdon Manor
  • Mike Fear © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
    Interior View, Waddesdon Manor
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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 Reynolds
    Mrs Abington as The Comic Muse, 1764-1768
  • Elephant automaton
  • Carpet, 1683
  • Suzanne de Court
    Plaque depicting The Annunciation (detail), c.1600
  • Ferdinand's three Sevres pot-pourri vases in the shape of ships, 1761

Collection Highlights

  • Joshua Reynolds
    Mrs Abington as The Comic Muse, 1764-1768
    Waddesdon, National Trust. Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957 © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
  • Elephant automaton
    Photo: Chris Lacey © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
  • Carpet, 1683
    Savonnerie manufactory
    Waddesdon, National Trust. Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957. Photo: Mr P J Gates © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
  • Suzanne de Court
    Plaque depicting The Annunciation (detail), c.1600
    Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Waddesdon Manor, 1990. Photo: Mike Fear © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
  • Ferdinand's three Sevres pot-pourri vases in the shape of ships, 1761
    © National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
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