The National Trust owns probably the largest collection of furniture in the country and possibly in the world.
It ranges from late medieval to the 20th century, including pieces of outstanding importance. There are the early Renaissance carved stone tables at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire and the Sea-Dog and Eglantine tables at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, masterpieces of luxury furniture of the Elizabethan period.
Knole in Kent possesses almost all the remaining early 17th-century court seat furniture in the country, while at Ham House in London is the exemplary ensemble of late 17th-century English furniture.
Outstanding examples of 18th-century English furniture design are represented by the walnut at Dunham Massey in Cheshire from the first decades of the century, the Thomas Chippendale furniture at Nostell Priory in West Yorkshire and the Thomas Chippendale the Younger library furniture at Stourhead in Wiltshire.
The 19th century is richly exemplified by Hopper’s Norman Revival furniture at Penrhyn Castle in Wales, and Norman Shaw’s ebonised library furniture at Cragside in Northumberland.
The National Trust has important examples from the 20th century in the kitchen furniture by Sir Edwin Lutyens at Castle Drogo in Devon and Lindisfarne in Northumberland and the furniture designed by Ernö Goldfinger for his own house at 2 Willow Road in London.
The holdings are not exclusively of native furniture. Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire has one of the greatest collections of French furniture in the world. There is Italian furniture at Attingham Park in Shropshire, Spanish furniture at Castle Drogo in Devon, German cabinets at Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire and fine 17th-century Dutch cabinets at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire and Kingston Lacy in Dorset.
We also care for superb Indian furniture at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire and Powis Castle in Wales.
The National Trust’s furniture collection is truly international, with an important extra dimension. Because it was not built up as a museum collection it also contains the full functional range of ordinary furniture, including chopping blocks, linen cupboards and servants’ beds.
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