The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting
Yale University Press | 1985 | 0300035047 | English | 684 pages | PDF | 133 MB

Catalog of the National Gallery exhibition of nearly 600 objects from British country house collections, this vast book begins with very brief essays by the stable of Country Life writers (Mark Girouard on power of the gentry, Sir Oliver Millar on portraiture, Francis Haskell on British collecting, etc.). Entries on the objects follow, arranged by broad periods or themes (Tudor Renaissance, Sporting Life, the Highlands, etc.). Many of the objects are outstanding, but without any unifying theme this collection appears to be more successful as an exhibit than as a book with something overall to say. The color illustrations are very good, but the tone of the entries varies from author to author