Numbering some 1,500 individual items and housed at over 80 historic properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the collection of portrait miniatures cared for by the National Trust is considered to be one of the most significant in the world.
Numbering some 1,500 individual items and housed at over 80 historic properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the collection of portrait miniatures cared for by the National Trust is considered to be one of the most significant in the world. As a whole, these precious works of art represent the highest standard of artistry and provide a history of miniature painting in Britain. They range from Holbein’s 1533 portrait of A Man Holding a Pink at Upton House in Warwickshire through to Wainwright’s portrait of Evelyn Ward (1916), painted several decades after the advent of photography had begun to supersede the art of the miniature.

This comprehensive catalogue, featuring every miniatures in the National Trust’s care, is being prepared in volumes, divided by region. The first volume, covering Northern Ireland, was published in July 2003. This second volume looks at miniatures from the Trust’s historic houses in the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, including those that recently came to the Trust as part of its acquisition of the magnificent Victorian mansion of Tyntesfield, south of Bristol.