This year’s theme for the Waddesdon Manor × Buckingham Files explores collecting and taste through the lens of provenance research, developed as part of a collaboration between Waddesdon Manor and the University of Buckingham.

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The theme develops from recent renewed attention to Alice de Rothschild (1847–1922) and her decisive role in shaping Waddesdon’s collections, most notably expressed through the exhibition Alice de Rothschild: Collector organised at Waddesdon Manor in 2022-2023. This focus has prompted fresh questions about Alice’s curatorial vision, her intellectual engagement with objects collected by herself and by her brother Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898) and the significance of the lists and catalogues she compiled.

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Objects selected for student study are largely drawn from those listed in Alice de Rothschild’s catalogues, placing her individual approach to the family’s collection at the centre of the project. When known, she records information about how and when the object came into the collection at Waddesdon Manor, at times presumably recounting information given to her by her brother. This year, the objects selected for student study all feature in the 1906 catalogue, where they are each associated with a British collector. The majority of objects were made in France in the eighteenth century. The students’ focus this year was therefore to find out more about the objects’ history of collecting after the time they were made and before they arrived at Waddesdon. By tracing ownership histories, modes of acquisition, and archival references, provenance research allows students to move beyond attribution and chronology, revealing the networks, market conditions and cultural values that informed collectors’ activities.

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Used in this way, provenance is not simply a record of ownership but a critical tool for reconstructing dynamics of taste and broader cultural phenomena – from the transmission of artistic fashions to the meanings attached to materials, styles, and historical prestige. Together, the student object entries and blogs demonstrate how provenance research can deepen understanding of Waddesdon Manor, its collections, and the cultural forces that shaped them.