Waddesdon Curators
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News and insights from the team at Waddesdon Manor #18thcArt #decarts #collectingart #exhibitions plus lots more curatorial goings-on
Waddesdon, England
Joined October 2015
This tapestry entitled February - Playing Games comes from a series of twelve designs representing pastimes appropriate to each month; the designs originate from Brussels in the 1530s. The original 16th century tapestries were destroyed in 1797 in order to extract the gold thread
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Our 18th-century organ clock is making the journey back to its ancestral homeland this week; it will be kept at the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht for the next year where it will be investigated, restored and cleaned by specialist conservators.
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King Charles I, whose likeness is captured on this snuff box (c 1705–1728), was beheaded #otd in 1649. Like today, the weather was very fresh at the time, which caused the 48-year-old King to worry that should he shiver from cold, the onlookers might mistake him for being fearful
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The Manor has been put to bed until March... 'Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!' (Wordsworth, 1802)
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300 years old in 2025, 'The Game of Good Children' teaches children about the worries, sorrows and intrigues of life. The rules are listed in the centre. If they manage to pass the trials and avoid Death at square 58, players reach square 63 and sit at the Table of Good Children
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(Published on this day in Jan 1792) 'The General Lafayette, supported by Marshalls Lukner's and Rochambeau's batons, takes the moon with his teeth'. Thanks to any historians who are able to explain what on earth this is all about...
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'The Tragic End of Louis XVI' - the last king of France was guillotined on this day in 1793 as depicted in this engraving. 'I die innocent of the crimes I am accused of. I only ever desired the happiness of my people, and my last wishes are that God forgives them for my death'.
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Our Significant Signatures exhibition is being assembled by Waddesdon's archival team. On display will be autographs and letters from some of the most influential figures of the last 500 years. The Guardian has been good enough to provide some background:
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The Tree of Liberty was one of the principal symbols of the French Revolution; they weren't always literal trees, and this example - planted on this day in 1793 in Mainz, Germany - was more of a maypole with foliage stuck on top
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As we embark on 2025 we are looking forward to two exhibitions relating to the Jewish Country Houses project (see: , the first of which (opening March 26th) will feature a selection of works from the celebrated photographer Hélène Binet
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Having survived the snow and frost, these tenacious daffodils are a welcome but surprising sight for this time of year - found in the grounds of Waddesdon near the aviary
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Depicting a huntsman riding an easel, this trade card of a german artist wishes all a happy new year - the date in the bottom left is 1786 and the writing is loosely translated as 'self-made based on Life in the Moonlight'
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She was a vital patron of Sèvres porcelain manufactory (e.g., . Our collections include portraits, books from her library, prints she made and letters she wrote. The Rothschild family, a century after her death, recognised her for the trailblazer she was.
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This enamel plaque depicting the nativity is more than 400 years old. To make such an item took a great deal of time and skill; multiple layers of ground glass and metal oxides were fused to one another in separate firings to form each colour - liquid gold was added last
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Today marks the winter solstice; this marble sculpture on the Waddesdon Estate, of a chap with a cracking beard and enveloped in the pelt of lion, personifies winter
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'There are a number of interesting activities taking place (ice golf?) to create a health and safety nightmare in this wintry scene from c 1620s Belgium - 'Company on ice beside a castle' (unknown artist)
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There's plenty of time left to explore Luminism's Light Trail and Jamie Shiel's Manor projections - to get a taste of what to expect, you can take a virtual tour on the Bloomberg Connects app:
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Baron Ferdinand's birth/death was #otd (1839–1898). He purchased the Estate aged 35 and spent his remaining 24 years building, improving and entertaining at the Manor during his 'Saturday to Monday' parties. This portrait, however, was taken at the Devonshire House Ball
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Waddesdon Manor's Curator of Decorative Arts Mia Jackson will share her expertise in a lecture on Sèvres painter Louis-Denis Armand (1723–1796) at the Bard Graduate Center on 11 Dec, if you happen to be in the Big Apple:
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