This summer at Waddesdon

Magazine Antiques, July, 2004 by Miriam Kramer

In 1874 Baron Ferdinand Rothschild purchased the Waddesdon Estate, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, from George Charles Spencer-Churchill, eighth duke of Marlborough. At the time it was an agricultural property, but the baron planned to build a house and make a garden to create a retreat where he could entertain in grand style. To furnish the house, he drew upon what he believed to be the best and most sophisticated period of art and design, namely eighteenth-century France. The result is a French Renaissance style chateau atop an artificially created hill with formal gardens attached, surrounded by a landscaped wilderness, and furnished with some of the best furniture, paintings, porcelain, and other works of art produced in France in the eighteenth century.

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The baron played host on a lavish scale to the rich and powerful of his time, including many crowned heads of Europe. Among the American visitors were Henry James, Consuela Vanderbilt, William Waldorf Astor, and Lady Jennie Churchill.

To mark the 130th anniversary of Baron Rothschild's acquisition of Waddesdon, this summer's displays in both the house and gardens are centered around him. The baron's private sitting room has been restored to its appearance in 1897, thanks to photographs, documents, and references in the Red Book, which contains information on the interiors and gardens of Waddesdon. In the Family Room are displays devoted to the baron and his life at and outside Waddesdon, and the Exhibition Room demonstrates his activities as a collector. The Aviary (illustrated on p. 42) has been repainted and gilded, and the flower beds on the parterre reproduce designs on the binding of an almanac commissioned by Marie Antoinette in 1777--one of the baron's most prized acquisitions.

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Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust property, is open Wednesday to Sunday until October 31; the grounds can be visited, also Wednesday to Sunday, until December 23.