Theresa Thompson on a manor's history told with extraordinary items

Imagine... Lace at Waddesdon suggests the title of one of the new season’s exhibitions at Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury. Yet few of us — bar contemporary lace-makers who know that extraordinarily inventive and sculptural works can be made out of delicate lace, besides traditional collars, cuffs and christening gowns — could possibly imagine the delights to come from walking the Manor’s new lace trail.

Waddesdon was built in the late 19th century as a place to entertain Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s guests at his famous ‘Saturday to Monday’ parties. The 50 lace works displayed pick up on the theme of entertaining, imagining guests arriving for a house party today, from invitation and a hat worn on arrival to evening dresses and accessories, and include some surprising contemporary interpretations inspired by the house and collections. Waddesdon devised the exhibition with the contemporary lace-making group, Lace 21, comprising members from the Lace Guild, the Lace Society and the Ring of Tatters.

Look out for the lace-trimmed pendants mirroring crystal droplets on a late 19th-century French chandelier; a gilded birdcage in the conservatory where bird and leaves are made of bobbin lace; beautiful pink sprays of Waddesdon Roses in the dining room, worked in tatted lace inspired by painted roses on a Sèvres dish; and in the plush Baron’s Room beneath 18th-century portraits of female beauties, an exquisite little table screen adorned with red crystals, inspired by the room’s trellis patterned tapestry screen; and, upstairs, unexpectedly, an emu family made by an Australian lace-maker, evidently inspired by the aviary, and an elephant on a casket based on the elephant automaton in the East Gallery. Examples of historic lace from the Rothschild collection are also shown, and an accompanying leaflet explains lace-making techniques.

The Waddesdon at War exhibition movingly explores the centenary of the First World War. It looks at how great houses like Waddesdon and its people were affected. Viewing the war years from this perspective, it takes in letters written by men on the front, by Miss Alice to her head gardener instructing him to throw away the bedding plants and instead “grow as much food as possible,” photographs of uniformed men parading through the village, women making hay on the cricket field, and how the Rothschild family with branches in Germany, Austria, France and Britain was itself divided by war.

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Dig deep: Gardeners at Waddesdon, c1900

This focus on what it was like living in the house during war is further explored with a second trail called Rascal Shadows. Combining dream-like photographs and installations from artist Jan Dunning, it playfully reimagines what it was like to live in this grand house for the 100 five-and-under evacuees from bomb-threatened Croydon during the Second World War. “It must have been a jarring contrast between where they came from and the magnificence of this house. Yet, they spoke overwhelmingly positively of it. It must have seemed a magical place,” said Dunning. Thus, we see, for instance, battered suitcases left in corners strewn with lead soldiers, model aeroplanes, or a teddy, the apparent belongings of these ‘lovable rascals’, and fantasy images created using pinhole photography. A camera obscura in a second floor turret projecting images of Waddesdon’s parterre and fountain and its beautiful stone façade completes the shadows trail.

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Picture from Waddesdon's 'At War' exhibition

And there’s more yet. It would be a great pity to miss Royal Spectacle. The display shows the fantastic feasts, floats and festivities that the French Royal court put on in the 17th and 18th centuries using a selection of engraved books, prints and drawings. In incredible detail the works illustrate the extraordinary pomp and circumstance of court life, going from birth, marriage and death (the grandest of funerary chariots), to processions, and carousels – equestrian displays, such as spearing rings or heads (papier mâché!) at full gallop – to floats in the shape of fish or elephants, and some equipped with firework displays.

“These books are seldom seen,” said curator Rachel Jacobs. “Normally, you only see these beautifully bound books on the shelves in the Morning Room, and people think they must be fake!” Now we can see inside them, and it makes a fascinating display.

Waddesdon Manor
For house and gardens opening times, visit waddesdon.org.uk