Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor

Mansion built 1874–1883 by French architect Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, a Frankfurt-born member of the international Jewish banking dynasty who was raised in Austria, served as a British Liberal MP, and was a passionate art collector. The house and its collections represent the most complete surviving example of 'goût Rothschild' — the distinctive aesthetic taste of the Rothschild family.

The building is constructed of Bath stone with steeply pitched slate roofs and is designed in the style of a 16th-century French château, incorporating architectural elements from Blois, Maintenon, Chambord and Chaumont. It follows an approximate E-plan with circular staircase towers positioned in the angles between the main range and side wings. Additional round towers rise at the front of the north-east wing and at the rear of the south-west corner. A small wing was added to the south-west in 1889, and a service wing with a Bachelors' wing (altered in the 1890s by André Destailleur) is attached to the north-east, to the rear.

The house is two storeys with an attic. The main range comprises seven bays articulated by paired pilasters, entablatures, and a parapet with wave ornament and large carved urn finials. The ground floor features arched windows, balustraded aprons and composite pilasters. The first floor has stone mullion and transom windows with panelled aprons and pilasters. Attic dormers are flanked by festoon scrolls and have elaborate gables. Tall panelled chimneys with segmental pediments rest on scroll modillion cornices. The centre bay projects forward with rusticated quoins and a separate pavilion roof; the first floor has French doors between Composite columns, while the attic features an elaborate dormer with an oculus in a cartouche, swan-neck pediment on paired scrolls, and an urn finial.

The ground-floor porch projects forward with segmental arches, paired Composite columns, and a strapwork parapet bearing urn finials and a central heraldic crest. Domed staircase towers have spiral balustrades; their attic storeys are decorated with carved terms. The side wings have panelled pilasters, entablatures, mock machicolations below plain attic storeys, and very steep pavilion roofs with parapets and tall urn finials. A round tower to the left has a steep conical roof. The 1889 extension to the right resembles the side wings but features an elaborate doorway and decorated Gothic-style bay window to the rear. The south-east front is particularly fine, with the end bays and centre-piece displaying arched windows and Composite columns.

Interior

The entrance hall and oval vestibule are of stone with coffered vaults, niches, carved cartouches and marble architrave frames to doors. Flanking galleries, a small library and the west hall contain panelling incorporating carved mid-18th-century French boiseries salvaged from demolished Parisian houses.

The breakfast room at the east end and the Grey Drawing Room have more complete panelling of similar origin, executed in a delicate Rococo style with large mirrors and carved marble fireplaces. Late 19th-century plaster ceilings feature richly decorated coves. The dining room dates to the late 19th century and has grey marble panelling framing 18th-century French mirrors and a pair of tapestries. A 19th-century white marble fireplace displays lamp-holding putti seated on the mantelshelf. An adjacent similarly panelled ante-room contains two carved marble basins and provides access to the conservatory. The Red Drawing Room, positioned centrally, has a painted ceiling canvas dated 1725 by Jacob de Wit depicting the Apotheosis of Hercules, set within an elaborate 19th-century gilt cornice. This room also contains wood and gilt carved doorcases, one bearing a marble relief of The Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV. The octagonal room in the south-west tower is fitted with later 18th-century French wooden arcading and a marble gilt fireplace. Similar fireplaces appear in the adjacent Baron's Room and the room above. Stone spiral staircases follow the manner of Chambord, with decoratively panelled newels.

Four bedrooms on the first floor contain mid-18th-century French panelling, as does the exceptionally fine Green Boudoir, which is finished in green and gilt with large opposing mirrors and a pink marble fireplace. The north-east wing includes a mezzanine room with panelling and fireplace of similar date, and provides access to the Bachelor Wing, decorated in a heavier Renaissance style. The smoking room features a painted beam ceiling, heavily carved wooden doorcases and a carved wooden fireplace with ceramic tiles and a display cabinet above. The billiard room has an elaborate marble fireplace, 17th-century and imitation French panelling, and a depressed barrel vault with stone ribs and large modillion scrolls.

The house is now owned by the National Trust.