The Perfect Gentleman Issue 1 - March 2016 | Page 38

Cultural Gentleman

by James Marwood

As much as we love cities, they can be noisy,
distracting places. It is good to find little oases
of quiet and calm. Places where you can find
spend time relaxing and reinvigorating. This is
where one of London’s hidden gems shines.
The Wallace Collection is a private museum,
located in a grand square just behind Oxford
Street. By contrast to that busiest of shopping
centres it is calm, elegant and welcoming.
The Collection is famous for it’s art, pottery
and furniture. Perhaps most recognisable are
Hals’ 1624 masterpiece The Laughing Cavalier
and Fragonard’s sensual rococo masterpiece
The Swing. You should make a point of seeing
these when you visit. It also has a large
collection of ceramics and one of the world’s
ten most important collections of 18th and
19th century French furniture. This latter has
several items by André-Charles Boulle. He was
the greatest of the French cabinet makers, and
the artistry and craftsmanship on display
shows why.

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These take up the top floor of Hertford
House, the grand house where the collection
is displayed, and the gloriously large rooms
show these to great effect. However it is the
ground floor that has the most of interest.
This being the home of one of the largest
collections of Arms and Armour on display
in Europe.
The Collection contains a variety of unusual
items from India and Persia. Cases full of
exotic swords and knives alongside
fantastically intricate and seemingly delicate
armour. Each of these is catalogued in
leather bound books dotted around the
collection and it is worth looking up items of
interest.
As well as these exotic items there are a large
collection of Italian renaissance arms, such as
broad cinqueda daggers and long rapiers
jostling with a variety of northern European
swords and poll-arms. For those with an
interest in history and martial arts this allows
for fascinating comparisons.