TREASURES of the TRUST
The National Trust looks after more than 200 historic houses, which contain over one million objects. From works of art and vast tapestries to precious personal possessions, the range and breadth of the collections is astonishing and can be compared with those of the UK’s national museums. For many, it is the surprising miscellany and variety of the displays that make visiting these properties so fascinating, providing us with a visceral and often haunting sense of the past in the domestic setting.
As part of the National Trust’s Year of Treasures, a new book, 125 Treasures from the Collections of the National Trust, spotlights some of the Trust’s most prized pieces. Selecting just 125 objects was a difficult task: “We have so many remarkable and important objects across hundreds of historic properties,” says the book’s author Dr Tarnya Cooper, who is the National Trust’s Curation and Conservation Director. “The final choice is quite personal. The richness of the collections mean that a different author at a different time would have been able to choose an equally remarkable set of objects.”
Each of the precious objects on these pages has a particular story to tell, and provides a fascinating insight into the history of taste among some of the wealthiest and most influential households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A timely spectacle
If you are fortunate enough to arrive at the right time at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire, you can see and listen to a spectacle that has delighted guests since the 1800s. This
