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All That's Not Creation Is Imitation · Jul 9, 2023

Why couldn't the British Royals ever rival the Palace of Versailles?

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Michael Mark Ross · All That's Not Creation Is Imitation

One of the Rothschild homes, Waddesdon Manor, is said to contain more decorative art than the Palace of Versailles.

The Grade I listed house was built in a mostly Neo-Renaissance style, copying individual features of several French châteaux, between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) as a weekend residence for entertaining and to house his collection of arts and antiquities. As the manor and estate have passed through three generations of the Rothschild family, the contents of the house have expanded to become one of the most rare and valuable collections in the world.[2] In 1957, James de Rothschild bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust, opening the house and gardens for the benefit of the general public. Unusually for a National Trust property, the family of James Rothschild, the donor, manage the house.

Anyone can visit now. It’s breathtakingly lavish. Chock full of rare and beautiful objects.

Works were acquired for their exquisite quality and fine provenance, particularly those belonging to French royalty of the Ancien Régime. Once his château was complete, Baron Ferdinand installed his extensive collections of English 18th-century portraits by artists like Gainsborough and Reynolds, as well as French 18th-century boiseries, Savonnerie carpets, Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries, furniture, Sèvres ceramics, books, Dutch paintings and Renaissance treasures.

Quoted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor

National Trust page
Rothschild Foundation page

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