• A rare royal commission by Edwin Henry Landseer
  
  
• A porcelain dinner service once owned by the Duke of Hamilton
  
  
  
• A stunning 17th-century portrait by Dutch master Pieter Claesz Soutman
  
  
• A first edition numbered copy of the Portland Vase by Wedgwood
  
  
• A pair of silve gilt tazze made for King George III

An exciting time for technology, science and the arts, British culture of the 19th century found itself at a crossroads - awakening to change with echoes of the past still visible. While strict rules of etiquette still governed society, opulence and entertainment emerged as a driving socioeconomic force that became a central facet of aristocratic life. Through an exploration of the elaborate leisure culture that defined the era, the exhibition will reveal the complex ways in which the English aristocracy displayed – and ultimately preserved – its vast wealth and social power in the face of a rapidly changing economic structure.

Edwin Henry Landseer, Portrait of an Arab Mare with Her Foal

Pieter Claesz Soutman
Portrait of a Lady

First-Edition Portland Vase by Wedgwood