Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

From Waddesdon to the British Museum: Baron Ferdinand Rothschild and his cabinet collection

2001; Oxford University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jhc/13.2.191

1477-8564

D. Thornton,

Art History and Market Analysis

‘The Waddesdon Bequest’ is the name given to the Kunstkammer collection bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, MP at his death in 1898. Named after Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, where the collection was housed during Ferdinand's lifetime, the bequest is one of the most important in the history of the British Museum. The author looks at the genesis and growth of the collection, and patterns of acquisition over Ferdinand's lifetime. She describes how it was displayed from 1896 in a specially designed museum, the New Smoking Room, at Waddesdon. Finally, she analyses the possible motives behind Ferdinand's decision to leave this part of his collection to the nation, for the benefit of the public, and as a means of securing the future of Waddesdon Manor itself.