A giant House of Cards stands on the parterre at Waddesdon Manor. Its four sheets of steel lean one against the other, the precarious balancing act of American artist Richard Serra’s work sustained by weight and pressure alone.

On the other side of the Rothschild manor, a magical oversize teapot sits on the lawn. Oxidised to a reddish brown, the filigree wrought iron fancy of Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos’s Pavillon de Thé embodies the playfulness and lightness of touch of the Boy Building a House of Cards in Chardin’s famous paintings.

All 33 works in this exhibition of contemporary sculpture at Waddesdon Manor have been chosen as responses to paintings by French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin, especially his House of Cards on view in all four variations inside the Manor. Conceived and curated by the auction house Christie’s, the show includes some specially commissioned sculptures, and most are for sale as if in a gallery (prices between £60,000 and £7.5m).

Themes such as balance, precariousness, stability, grace, playfulness and the passage of time connect the 18th-century paintings and modern-day sculptures. Artists include Tony Cragg, Urs Fischer, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons, and Ai Wei Wei. The earliest piece is American artist Tony Smith’s painted aluminium Moon Dog, made in 1964.

Moon Dog is an extraordinary sight, minimalist yet dominating the immediate area by size, colour and geometric configuration. From some viewpoints it seems to tilt, giving an impression of instability that is at odds with its massive form. Viewing it with the turreted façade of the house as a backdrop, the influence of the artist’s early career as an architect is clear. Smith said he was also influenced by Joan Miró's painting Dog Barking at the Moon.

Nearby, Kapoor’s monolith Untitled is of a similar scale and quality. Made out of dark stone polished so highly that it reflects a double inverted image of the landscape, it is a typically elegant work by Kapoor, perhaps made more relevant to see given the publicity around his twisted steel Orbit Olympic Park sculpture.

Not everything is as it seems. Gormley’s ostensibly sun-worshipping man appears to be lying flat on the paving, yet he teeters on two points. Xu Bing’s Stone Path flowing downhill on the grass is a pleasure to follow as if following a poem. Each of the 74 stones appears to be carved with a Chinese character, yet word play frequently plays a part in the Chinese artist’s work.

A cleverly conceived exhibition, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire’s beautiful grounds have never been more enjoyable. If you go soon, the exhibitions overlap. House of Cards runs until July 15 and Christie’s sculptures remain in the grounds and Coach House until October 28. See waddesdon.org.uk Waddesdon Manor, easily accessible from Oxford along the Bicester to Aylesbury road, is the home of the Rothschild Collection and one of the most visited of the National Trust properties.