Architecture and Panelling: James A. De Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 19th century. This book contains a scholarly account of the origins of the house and the first ever catalogue of the celebrated panelling which it contains, carved in the 18th century in France for great houses in Paris, and now re-assembled at Waddesdon.
Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bought the Waddesdon Estate in 1874 but building did not begin until 1877. In the intervening years the Parisian architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur produced designs on an enormous scale for a French Renaissance-style chateau. The end result, completed in 1889, was a smaller house which became the epitome of grandeur and elegance and which represents several decisive landmarks in the history of architecture and decoration in France.

The catalogue of the house's panelling comprises rather more than half the book. There are 335 entries, each one illustrated and including a description, measurements, location and provenance, and a commentary which discusses various aspects of each panel in relation to its fellows, its period and its history. Each group of panels is accompanied by a fully documented section on the houses for which they were carved - houses which were celebrated in the 18th century for the quality of their decoration.

Bruno Pons trained as an art historian at the university of Strasbourg, specialising in the history of French and German Architecture and Decoration of the late 17th and 18th centuries. He has worked as museum curator at the Musee de la Medicine and has been instrumental in the creation of a national institute of art. He is also a physician specialising in Endocrinology.