Britain on the Cheap

The Royal Oak Foundation, the American affiliate of the National Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is sponsoring two lectures during the AVENUE Shows Antiques & Art at the Armory in New York.

A Family Affair: Treasures from the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor will be presented by Dr. Ulrich Leben, Associate Curator of Furniture, The Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, 4 p.m. Dec. 4.

In 1874, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild purchased a 2,700-acre English farming estate from the Duke of Marlborough and created a French Renaissance-style country house in which he entertained his friends with lavish weekend parties. The magnificent house became his life’s work, which  he enhanced with one of the greatest private collections of fine and decorative art in the world:  furniture made for the French Royal family, porcelain by Gainsborough and Reynolds, and a Savonnerie carpet ordered for the Louvre by Louis XIV. Family heirs added to the collection until the property was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957.

John James Oddy, Executive Director, The Royal Oak Foundation, will present A Country’s Caretakers: The Collections and Treasures of Britain’s National Trust at 3 p.m. Dec. 5.

The National Trust is the steward of more than 300 historic houses containing more than a million objects such as Old Master paintings, furniture and decorative arts of an eccentric nature. This illustrated lecture will explore Nostell Priory, with its custom-designed Thomas Chippendale furniture, Knole, with its House of Stuart Royal collections, and Kingston Lacy, built as a personal treasure house by William Bankes during his exile in Venice.

Reservations are required by emailing RoyalOakLecture@manhattanmedia.com.