Berrington Hall, Herefordshire
This collection has 1,999 items online
The collection at Berrington Hall is generally not indigenous, the house having come to the National Trust relatively unfurnished due to the 7th Lord Rodney’s fondness for gambling away the family wealth and much of Berrington’s contents – including several Gainsborough paintings – in the 19th century. Today the house is widely furnished and decorated with The Elmar Digby Collection bequeathed to the Trust in 1981, which features fine examples of French furniture, snuff and sewing boxes, seals, clocks and watches, and small objets d'art and de virtue. The ceramic collection at Berrington is considerable, ranging from a blue and white Chinese plate and carved oriental stand both from c.1700, to a set of Copland bedroom china in a white ground and gold moulded rope design c.1885. The painting collection is small but holds Allan Ramsay’s portrait of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and four large sea battle scenes from the War of American Independence . A number of drawings and watercolours are also on display, including a caricature of Winston Churchill as a pirate, as are numerous prints, many after Angelica Kauffman featuring historical, mythological and allegorical figures. There are also four tapestries from the Aubusson workshop based on paintings by the French artist Nicolas Lancret, and commissioned c.1901.
