The Wallace Collection, London

Tuesday 17th March 2026

A Grand Day Out

At 7.45am on a clear morning with a slight chill in the air 45 members, friends and visitors boarded the coach to the Wallace Collection in Marylebone.  

We arrived after a quiet, easy, event free journey slightly ahead of schedule to be  welcomed into the comfortable Courtyard restaurant for a cuppa and huge cookies. 

 We then split into two groups for a highlights tour of the collection- there was so  much to see and be informed about that both tours over ran by 30 minutes. The Collection was amassed by five generations of the Seymour-Conway and Wallace family from about the mid- 18th to mid -19th century. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Lady Wallace in 1897.

Our guides were well informed and I was impressed with the details they were able to tell us about the many and varied highlight pieces without reference to notes.

One of the group, (from Cheltenham and who had seen the advert in her dental surgery in Cirencester! ) was very pleased to have joined us as she’d wanted to visit the collection for some years.   She was amazed by the wide scope of the collectionand the detailed working of many of the pieces of porcelain and armaments.  Other members of the group commented that they enjoyed amongst the many delights - the collection of furniture, were pleased to have seen Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’ and amused to hear the story of the lady’s admirer ‘up skirting’ that is attached to it, the portrait of Queen Victoria as a new, young Queen and of course Caravaggio’s ‘Victorious Cupid’.   Our viewing of this picture was greatly enriched for those who had been to Nick Nelson’s informative lecture on Caravaggio the previous Saturday.

Personally, as a traditional bobbin lace maker I was delighted, after many years of looking at reproductions, to see the detail of the Laughing Cavalier’s lace close up in the original and in the Dutch Gallery the beautiful picture of ‘The Lace Maker’ by Caspar Netscher (1664)- who is making a tape lace with 6 pairs of bobbins!  Interestingly- the lace pillow she is using is the same shape as one of mine!  Unexpectedly in the Dutch Gallery , I was also thrilled to find a portrait simply entitled  ‘The Dutch Lady’ by M J Mierevelt (1628) which includes exquisitely painted lace: 4 layers of an immaculately starched and ironed ruff with lace edging, 2 rounds of lace at her cuffs and a delicate but complicated lace head piece with what looks like pearls inset.

After the tours we had time on our hands: some revisited the Collection to view the parts we hadn’t seen on our tours, some had leisurely sociable lunches in the cafe, while others took in the warm sunshine and relaxed atmosphere of the Marylebone area.

We left Baker Street on time and with more chatter amongst new and long standing friends on the way home than the early outward journey!

Many thanks go to the Visits and Events team for their faultless organisation and another delightful day out.

TASC Member, Cashy Smith