page_title: Ascott House
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: Ascott House / Interior
context_page_description: Ascott House, sometimes referred to as simply Ascott, is a Grade II* listed building in the hamlet of Ascott near Wing in Buckinghamshire, England. It is set in a 3,200-acre estate.
  Ascott House was originally a farm house, built in the reign of James I and known as "Ascott Hall". In 1873 it was acquired by Baron Mayer de Rothschild. The Rothschild family had begun to acquire vast tracts of land in Buckinghamshire earlier in the century, on which they built a series of large mansions from 1852 onwards. Baron Mayer gave the house at Ascott to his nephew Leopold de Rothschild, who transformed it over the following decades into the substantial yet informal country house that it is today.
context_section_description: On the death of Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild in 1937 the house was inherited by her son Anthony Gustav de Rothschild. He and his wife, the former Yvonne D'Anvers, enlarged the house further, and were responsible for the present interiors, full of notable paintings and (unusually for a Rothschild House) a large collection of 18th-century English furniture.
  The ground floor contains the principal suite of large reception rooms, and while these rooms are furnished with works of art and furniture, they are low ceilinged, and, continuing the informal concept of the design, are in no way intended to be state rooms. The entrance hall is notable for its large paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, and Joshua Reynolds and the large work by George Stubbs, "Five Mares". The dining room, now decorated with what appear to be Dutch tiles but is in fact trompe l'oeil, contains a collection of small, mainly Dutch, paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries by such artists as Aelbert Cuyp, Adriaen van Ostade and Jan Steen.
  The works of art continue through the common room, with its portrait of a prelate attributed to Lorenzo Lotto. The Drawing Room today displays a collection of blue Chinese ceramics with examples from the Han dynasty circa 206 BC, to the Qing dynasty which lasted from 1644 until 1911. This room contains the painting of the Madonna and Child with St. John by Andrea del Sarto of 1520.
  In 1936 the Billiards Room was transformed into a library to house the many volumes amassed by Anthony de Rothschild. One of the most comfortable rooms in the house, its book-lined walls are only interrupted by Gainsborough's full-length portrait of the Duchess of Richmond, and various other masterpieces. Standing on a console table is Tiepolo's "The Assumption of the Virgin". The room also contains furniture by Thomas Chippendale and ancient Chinese ceramics.
caption: "Lady receiving a letter" by Ludolph de Jongh (1616–1679), bought by Baron Lionel de Rothschild in 1842
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