Antiques & Collecting
Features on Britain's antiques market, what people are buying and why, and how to collect items of historical significance, from the experts at Country Life.
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Fancy a date at the Tate? London galleries are staying open later to fuel surging Gen Z interestTate Modern, the home of contemporary art in London, has announced that they will open until 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights — after a recent surge in younger visitors.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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The 24 best furniture makers in Britain, as chosen by the nation's top designers and architectsGiles Kime asks members of Country Life's Top 100 for their recommendations when it comes to choosing a furniture maker.
By Giles Kime Published
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‘He’s been here and fired a gun’: How the rivalry between Turner and Constable spiced up Britain’s art sceneTate Britain will delve into the ‘war’ between the two great landscape artists, much touted by the art critics of their time, with a late-autumn exhibition, ‘Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals’.
By Carla Passino Published
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The best art dealers in Britain, as chosen by the nation's top designers, architects and creative mindsWho are art dealers used by Britain's top interior designers and creative minds? Giles Kime asks some of the most distinguished members of Country Life's Top 100 for their recommendations.
By Giles Kime Published
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Hope blooms eternal: Tom Young paints Lebanon's beauty, without shying away from the scars of conflict'In situations where there is conflict or displacement, or trauma, art can help in some sort of healing process. When there are barriers, it can transcend them'
By Octavia Pollock Published
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Christian Bolt won't stop until he can revive the Renaissance sculpture technique of terra seccaAt his studio fringed by the mountains of Klosters, Swiss sculptor Christian Bolt is feverishly cooking up recipes to re-create terra secca, a material used in Renaissance Italy, not only to expand his own artistic horizons, but to help save the planet.
By Carla Passino Published
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‘Everyone had dodgy magazines hidden under their beds and I had interior design magazines’: James Thurstan Waterworth's consuming passionsInterior designer James Thurstan Waterworth was the European design director at Soho House before he went on to open his own studio, Thurstan. He discusses his love of Tudor history, Andrew Scott and how a portrait of a chicken changed his life.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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101 gold rats, a 'self portrait as a horse' and a tribute to motherhood take home top prizes at this year's Royal Academy Summer ExhibitionThe Royal Academy has announced its 2025 prize winners, spanning talented sculptors, painters and print-makers, with works on display in London until August 19.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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‘One of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever made’: the Bayeux Tapestry heads to Britain for the first time in almost a millenniumA historic agreement between this country and France sees the 225ft-long tableau — which may have been made in Britain but has been in France since 1077 — arrive at the British Museum in Autumn 2026.
By Carla Passino Published
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‘They remain, really, the property of all of those who love them, know them, and tell them. They are our stories, the inheritance of the people of Scotland’: The Anthology of Scottish Folk TalesBy Patrick Galbraith Last updated
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Canine muses: Lucian Freud's etchings of Pluto the whippet are among his most popular and expensive workIn the third edition of our limited series, we meet the dogs who've inspired some of our greatest artists.
By Agnes Stamp Published
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‘What a shame when a dinosaur disappears into the mansion of an oligarch rather than being displayed for all to enjoy’: The ethics of the dinosaur auctionFancy a stegosaurus in your living room? You can buy one at auction. But the latest luxury good is a paleontologist's worst nightmare.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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‘Reactions to the French in the 1870s varied from outrage to curious interest’: Impressionism's painstaking ten year journey to be taken seriously by the BritsClaude Monet and Camille Pissarro spent time in London, but it took James McNeill Whistler to act as artistic bridge with Britain and the ‘sweetened’ Impressionism of Jules Bastien-Lepage to inspire most homegrown painters.
By Caroline Bulger Published
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Canine muses: The English bull terrier who helped transform her owner from 'a photographer into an artist'In the first edition of our new, limited series, we meet the dogs who've inspired some of our greatest artists.
By Agnes Stamp Published
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Richard Rogers: 'Talking Buildings' is a fitting testament to the elegance of utilityA new exhibition at Sir John Soane's museum dissects the seminal works of Richard Rogers, one of Britain's greatest architects.
By James Fisher Published
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‘The perfect hostess, he called her’: A five minute guide to Virgina Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’To mark its centenary, Lotte Brundle delves into the lauded writer’s strange and poignant classic, set across a single summer’s day in 1920’s London.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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This obscure and unloved picture that turned out to be Turner's first oil painting — and it's about to sell for 500 times what it last costJMW Turner's 'The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol' was lost and forgotten for years — but now it's been rediscovered, and is going under the hammer in July.
By Toby Keel Published
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The world’s most iconic handbag could be on your arm40 years after its conception, the original Hermès ‘Birkin’ bag, owned by the OG It Girl Jane Birkin, is going up for auction with Sotheby’s on July 10.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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A five minute guide to the new V&A East Storehouse’s treasuresSamurai swords and 350,000 books are just some of the curios in the new Victoria & Albert storehouse in Stratford, London, which is now open to the public.
By Carla Passino Published
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Young at art: Meet the new generation of Young British ArtistsAs British contemporary art beats all odds to remain a cauldron of inventiveness and passion, Carla Passino discovers which artists aged 40 or under are on the radar of forward-looking museum directors and curators
By Carla Passino Published
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What the Dickens! Celebrate 100 years of the Charles Dickens Museum alongside the great novelist's familyTo mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Charles Dickens Museum, a number of the author’s descendants will give talks and readings.
By Annunciata Elwes Published


