Osterley House in its present form was built on banking fortune. Over successive generations, the Child family transformed the mansion and filled it with treasures from the profits of their bank on Fleet Street in London that bears their name to this day: Child & Co.

Osterley is most famous for the Neo-Classical interiors that the Childs commissioned from Robert Adam (1728–1792) in the later 18th century but this online exhibition takes a step further back in time. It introduces the individuals who made that business the most successful of its kind during the ferment of Britain’s Financial Revolution (c.1660–1750).

Wealthy and well-connected to the operations on expanding global trade, the Childs furnished Osterley and their other houses with the best that money could buy from around the world: bright Chinese porcelain, dramatic Italian painting, gleaming Japanese lacquer.

'Treasures of Osterley' takes a close look at these precious works of art and craftsmanship and considers their meanings, both to the Child family who acquired them and to the original cultures that created them.

 

Gallery 1: Money

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Gallery 2: Dynasty

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Gallery 3: Treasures

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Gallery 4: Art

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About this Project

Learn more about Osterley

04 Nov 2019