Woburn Abbey

The Crypt Porcelain Display

At the foot of the crypt stairs are porcelain displays designed by Lady Tavistock. In the first alcove is the Meissen State Service c.1850 painted with romantic scenes. Lord Tavistock does not think it was practical - or popular with his family - as it is almost complete. Opposite is a case filled with Wedgwood caneware c.1820, used in the past as a picnic service in The Thornery. The middle alcove contains an eye catching display of seventeenth-century Japanese porcelain. Some of the pieces, decorated with a quail and millet motif, are Kakiemon, the name of a family of potters from Arita, a small village near the port of Imari. Opposite is a small display of pieces from the Meissen factory, some of them copying the Japanese style. The third alcove contains English porcelain and one of the finest pieces is a potpourri vase in the shape of a dovecot from the Chelsea factory c.1755. The fruit plates on the back wall were made at Davenport c.1830 and were used by one of the family's ancestors in his conservatory; when a guest selected piece of fruit it was presented on the appropriate plate.

The pavilion in the centre of the Sevres Room contains a great treasure - the dinner-service presented to the 4th Duchess by Louis XV in appreciation of her husband's role in negotiating the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It consists of 183 pieces, each one painted with a different design. It is not true porcelain. The important ingredients of real porcelain are kaolin and feldspar (hard paste) which were not used at Sevres until 1769; this is 'soft paste' instead, which was made from a wide variety of materials. The white figures are called 'biscuit'; this is unglazed porcelain with a texture similar to marble. Some of the figures are modelled on the drawings of Franacois Boucher (1703-70).

An interesting Terracotta display can be found in The Parlour.