Waddesdon has released a new series of eclectic online talks and tours for virtual visitors to gain unprecedented insight into the art, gardens and history of Waddesdon, the Rothschild House and Gardens in Buckinghamshire.
From virtual wine tasting (with bottles delivered to customers’ homes in advance), to talks about 18th-century board games, advice on planting home garden, Hannah Rothchild CBE discussing her latest novel and Waddesdon’s Jewish connections, these live online events offer a global audience access to this fascinating property, including an opportunity for the audience to ask the expert speakers questions.
Despite the House remaining closed, Waddesdon has given thousands of virtual visitors a chance to explore the Manor through their screens with 360-degree virtual tours of key French-inspired interiors and a series of ‘Lockdown Lowdown’ videos revealing behind the scenes activity caring for the collection over the last year.
What’s on in March:
Jewish Connections – 21 March, 4pm
Join Head of Collections and Gardens, Pippa Shirley, for a virtual tour exploring the history of the Rothschild family and their creation of Waddesdon Manor and its superb collections.
The event will include a look at the most recent new display, A Rothschild Treasury, which celebrates the magnificence of the Kunstkammer, and the family’s passion for collecting.
Designing your planting for 2021 – 23 March, 7:30pm
Join Nick Bailey, Waddesdon’s guest speaker from BBC Gardeners’ World, in a live online talk to inspire your 2021 gardening.
Packed full of easy-to-follow principles and techniques, the talk will equip you to assess your current plantings, plan new or integrated plantings, grow a host of species from seed and establish even more bountiful borders this year!
Teatime Taster: the old Manor Kitchens – 25 March, 6pm
When building Waddesdon Manor, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild wanted to ensure his new home provided every comfort and convenience for his fashionable weekend guests. Waddesdon quickly developed a reputation for serving the finest food, all prepared in the Manor kitchens.
Assistant Curator, Michael Shrive, will explore stories of the staff who worked in the kitchens, the menus prepared for special guests – such as Queen Victoria – and the use of top-of-the-range technology.
Wine tasting: an introduction to Rothschild Wine -26 March, 7pm
A live virtual wine tasting in the cellars at Waddesdon. Led by Peter Tompkins, Waddesdon’s Rothschild Wine Expert, and Andrew Bloomer, who spent three years running the wine department at Fortnum & Mason, you will be guided through an interactive, informative and entertaining evening.
Each household booking will receive four bottles of wine, as well as the tasting and technical notes, ideas for food pairings, tasting mats and the essential Waddesdon pencil – everything needed for a successful tasting.
Birds and Beasts – 31 March, 7pm
Landscape historian and Waddesdon Gardens’ archivist, Sophie Piebenga, will discuss the fashion for keeping birds and beasts and housing them in evermore opulent constructions.
Little remains of Ferdinand’s ‘zoo’ though contemporary descriptions give an idea of the delight and wonder it provoked in his guests staying at the Manor.
What’s on in April:
Spring Colour in the Gardens – 3 April, 6pm
Join Mike Buffin, Head of Gardens and author of The Illustrated Guide to Garden Trees, for a live tour of Waddesdon’s spring gardens and colourful bulb displays.
The focus of the tour will be the magnificent display of 32,500 tulips, planted in the formal bedding around the Aviary in 2019, and sadly seen by no one but a handful of gardeners and essential workers at the Manor last Spring.
Money Moving a Mountain – 8 April, 6pm
When in 1874 Ferdinand de Rothschild bought nearly 3000 acres of farmland at Waddesdon there was no ‘big house’, no gardens, and no parkland. Six years later he welcomed his first guests and in just over a decade had created the masterpiece that is the house and gardens we can see today.
Catherine Taylor, Head Archivist at Waddesdon, uses documents and images from the Archives to tell the story of Ferdinand’s creation of the gardens at Waddesdon Manor and what he was hoping to achieve.
The House of Trelawney, Hannah Rothschild in conversation – 14 April, 6pm
Hannah Rothschild CBE will discuss her novel, The House of Trelawney, with Pippa Shirley, Director of Collections, Historic Properties and Landscapes at Waddesdon.
Hannah Rothschild will also read from her book and take questions from the online audience about her novel writing.
Tickets include a signed hardback copy of The House of Trelawney which will be sent to you in advance of the event.
From Boredom to Board Games – 15 April, 6pm
Many of us have turned to board games as a lockdown pastime, but this is nothing new – people have been playing them for hundreds of years. 18th-century print publishers saw great potential in these games of chance, as educational games for children or just simply as recreational fun with themes exploring theatre, fashion and love.
Find out about the origins of some of these familiar games while diving into the entertaining 18th-century world of play with Curator Rachel Jacobs.
Aylesbury Vale ‘Rothschildshire’ – 22 April, 6pm
In the late 19th-century, Buckinghamshire was often referred to as ‘Rothschildshire’ due to the number of houses and the estates the family owned in the county.
Waddesdon Head Archivist, Catherine Taylor, will take a look at the history and main characteristics of the seven properties that gave the area this name as well as exploring the wider impact of the family in politics and philanthropy.
Virtual tasting: Secrets of the Cellar – 23 April, 7pm
In this live virtual tasting, sample five specially selected modern and contemporary wines showcasing some of the lesser-known wines that grace Waddesdon’s cellars, under the guidance of Waddesdon’s wine experts.
Each household booking will receive five bottles of wine, as well as the tasting and technical notes and food pairing recommendations.
What’s on in May:
Pulham Rocks! – 6 May, 7pm
Landscape historian, Sophie Piebenga, explores the fashion for creating landscapes with man-made rockwork in the late 19th century in this online talk.
The successful Victorian landscaping firm of James Pulham & Son carried out much work at Waddesdon during the 1880s and 1890s, and while their work might appear to look natural, it served a practical purpose too, with caverns serving as storage for tools and as night quarters for animals.
Storing and Staging: Baron Edmond Boxes – 10 May, 6pm
Join Senior Curator Juliet Carey to explore the surprising, beautiful boxes in which some of Waddesdon’s most precious objects live when out of the public eye.
Waddesdon still uses the unusually sophisticated boxes that Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934) commissioned for the storage of Sèvres porcelain and small sculptures and antiquities. Far from being neutral or invisible spaces, Edmond’s boxes construct new ways of experiencing their contents – from those that help us study vases, to a box that transforms into a stage, creating a private drama of enclosure and revelation around a little marble nymph.
For all their aesthetic and tactile appeal, the protective role of these boxes is underlined by the turbulence of the times that they survived, from revolutions and siege in 19th-century Paris to the Nazi occupation. A recent work by Edmund de Waal responds to this history and provides an intriguing postscript.
For more information on all upcoming events or to book, please visit the website.
