The splendour and squalor surrounding the Sun King
The château at Versailles remained the grandest palace in the whole of Europe from the moment that Louis XIV established…
Bedding down with the butler in Georgian Ireland
If you had the resources, Georgian Ireland must have been a very agreeable place in which to live. It was…
Cabinet of curiosity: we do not even know for sure the maker of the Sixtus Cabinet at Stourhead
Italian cabinets and tables decorated with inlaid semi-precious stones known as ‘pietre dure’ were a ‘must-have’ for English milords returning…
Anne Seymour Damer: the female Bernini?
Anne Seymour Damer (1748–1828) was virtually the only female sculptor working in Britain during her lifetime. Contemporary artists may have…
The Coronation Chair and the Stone of Scone, by Warwick Rodwell - review
The Coronation Chair currently stands all spruced up, following last year’s conservation, under a crimson canopy, by the west entrance…
Exhibition: What really goes on in a royal bedchamber
What exactly are the ‘secrets of the royal bedchamber’? That the actual bed was seldom if ever slept in let…
Concealed treasures
The Holburne Museum of Bath is a delight. Its collections were formed by Sir William Holburne (1793–1874), a naval officer…