Tutors
Adriano Aymonino
Dr Adriano Aymonino is an art historian specialising in early modern art, the reception of the classical tradition, and the history of collecting. He is Programme Director of the MA Art Market, Provenance and the History of Collecting at the University of Buckingham.
Adriano’s research focuses particularly on eighteenth-century art and provenance. His publications include Drawn from the Antique (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2015); Enlightened Eclecticism (Yale University Press, 2021), winner of the 2022 William M.B. Berger Prize for British Art History; and a revised and updated edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique (Brepols, 2024, with Eloisa Dodero). He is currently working on a critical edition of Robert and James Adam’s Grand Tour correspondence (Sir John Soane’s Museum, forthcoming) and a monograph on Pier Leone Ghezzi’s Studio di Molte Pietre (Burlington Magazine Press 2026).
He is a member of the advisory councils of the Museo del Bargello in Florence and the Attingham Trust. Through the Waddesdon Manor × Buckingham Files, Adriano brings his expertise in provenance research and the history of collecting into direct engagement with students, enabling them to work closely with historic collections in practice.
Lindsay Macnaughton
Dr Lindsay Macnaughton is a cultural historian of France specialising in 18th- and 19-century decorative arts and historic interiors, and the history of collecting in Britain and France. Her work is published in 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century and Museum History Journal. She is the Programme Director for the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at the University of Buckingham, where she has been a lecturer since 2020. Waddesdon Manor has been central to Lindsay’s career, beginning with an internship ten years ago, when she contributed to the Riesener Project and the publication Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (2020).
Lindsay’s research interests have been influenced by the city of Paris, where she was born, and by her Scottish-American upbringing there, and include cross-cultural exchanges, the material culture of urban upheaval, as well as 18th- and 19th-century French furniture and interiors. Lindsay is a Trustee and Secretary of the Society for the History of Collecting. She brings a wealth of experience to share with students from her internships at Waddesdon Manor (2015-2016), the Wallace Collection (2016) and the Musée du Louvre (2020). She is delighted that the Waddesdon Manor × Buckingham Files mean that her students can work with the collection and learn from the people that helped shape her academic interests to date.
Students
Albertina Ciani Sciolla
Albertina Ciani Sciolla is a doctoral candidate at the University of Buckingham. Her research focuses on the sculptor Raffaele Monti (1818–1881), specifically examining how Monti’s contributions shaped and were influenced by the Italian and British artistic contexts of the mid-nineteenth century. Her project also analyses his engagement with official patronage and the incorporation of industrial innovations into sculpture. She has authored a brief letter titled Moore not Monti, published in the Burlington Magazine (2023), as well as an article on Baron Carlo Marochetti’s involvement in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, available on the Victorian Web. Additionally, she has participated in numerous international conferences related to the field of sculpture. Furthermore, she served as one of the organisers of the conference entitled Academy, Market, Industry: Sculpture, Models, Themes, and Genres between Britain and Italy, c. 1728-1854, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2025.
Karlyn Culmer
Karlyn is a mid-career professional and recent graduate of the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors program at the University of Buckingham. With over ten years of experience in project management across architecture, interior design and construction, she has contributed to several historically inspired projects, including a “Versailles Wing” in a residence in Malibu, California, crafted by Féau Boiseries of Paris. Most recently, she oversaw the renovation of a 1929 Spanish Revival residence in Los Angeles and an 1899 brownstone in New York City. These experiences honed her already innate appreciation for historical design and materials, which she sought to explore academically through the MA at Buckingham. A hobbyist woodworker, Karlyn also approaches historic furniture and ornament with a practical understanding.
Since graduating, she has begun working on the renovation of an 1897 shingled beach cottage in The Hamptons, while considering further academic training to advance her career. She is a member of the Decorative Arts Trust, the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.
Jessamy Harvey
Jessamy Harvey has just completed her Masters in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at the University of Buckingham and completed a collaborative BIFMO-FHS digital internship with Raby Castle in 2025. She works as a researcher and associate archivist and records manager in the culture and heritage sector, and taking this degree was an opportunity to engage with the interdisciplinary and hands-on study of European applied arts in museums, galleries, historic buildings and country houses. She now volunteers as an Explainer at Kenwood House, London, as well as learning how to professionally restore furniture in her spare time whilst continuing to pursue her career. It was a privilege to focus on Waddesdon Manor’s French lean-to secretaire because it speaks volumes about Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s interest in French eighteenth century furniture as well as allowing us to glimpse the transnational character of decorative arts in France due to the incorporation of Japanese lacquer panels.
Christine Kyle
Christine Kyle spent her working life as director of a contemporary art gallery in Mayfair. She now assists on an archaeological excavation unearthing Mesolithic remains in Suffolk and when not playing tennis, enjoys walking long-distance paths in the U.K. She is currently completing a master’s degree in The Art market, Provenance and the History of Collecting at the University of Buckingham.
Phoebe Sowten
I recently completed my Masters in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors with the University of Buckingham, having received the Leche Trust Scholarship for 2024/2025, which I undertook to follow my enthusiasm for History of Art and to strengthen my knowledge of the heritage sector. Academically, I’m interested in combining gender history with the decorative arts, specifically focussing on the role of elite women in eighteenth-century Europe, which I explored in depth throughout my time on the course.
Whilst completing my Masters, I worked as a secondary school Literacy Assistant, Librarian and Lead of EAL Learning, a position I continue to hold. Although I take much pride in my role and have enjoyed working in education, I am eager to begin my career in the arts and have considered the possibility of continuing my academic journey in the field.
Waddesdon Manor Staff
Pippa Shirley, FSA
Director of Waddesdon (National Trust/Rothschild Foundation)
Pippa has History BA and an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute, London. She worked in publishing before joining the British Museum as a curator in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities. In 1992 she moved to the V&A as a Curator in the Metalwork, Silver and Jewellery Department, specialising in decorative ironwork and English and continental silver, working on three major gallery projects. In 2000 she was appointed Head of Collections at Waddesdon Manor leading the curatorial team responsible for the collections and archives of one of the most significant properties open to the public. In 2015 the Gardens and the Aviary (an accredited zoo) and Education and Learning were added. In 2022 she became Director of Waddesdon, responsible for operations, visitor services and experience and strategic planning. Pippa has published and lectured widely and oversees a varied programme of events for a range of audiences, exhibitions, schools and community learning programmes and external academic and other partnerships. Since 2018 she has been a member and is now Deputy Chair of the Reviewing Committee for the Export of Works of Art, an advisory body to DCMS. Pippa was previously on the Scholarship Committee of the Attingham Trust (2010-2015), and a member of the Comité Scientifique for the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, Paris (2015-2018).
The Manor is owned by the National Trust and managed by a charitable trust, The Rothschild Foundation chaired by Dame Hannah Rothschild CBE. Pippa works closely with the Foundation grant-giving team and represents Waddesdon across different media for press and marketing.
Catherine Taylor
Catherine Taylor has been Head of Archives and Records at Waddesdon Manor since 2020 and previously Head Archivist since 2012. A qualified archivist with 25 years’ experience Catherine has worked across the archive sector managing archive collections that spanned railway and hospital records to local authority files and deeds. She has been a member of the Archive Service Accreditation Committee for the last six years, helping to assess archive services against the accreditation standard. She is currently Chair of the Historic Houses Archivists Group.
Mia Jackson
Dr Mia Jackson is Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at Waddesdon Manor, where she has worked since 2017. She studied French and Philosophy at the University of Oxford then completed an MA in eighteenth-century French decorative arts at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her doctoral thesis entitled “André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) and Paper: Prints and Drawings in the Workshop of an Ébéniste du Roi” was completed at Queen Mary, University of London in 2016. She previously worked in the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum, the Wallace Collection, and English Heritage. Eighteenth-century France is her area of expertise, in particular the links between works on paper and the decorative arts.
Michael Shrive
Michael Shrive is Assistant Curator at Waddesdon Manor and an alumnus of The University of Buckingham, where he studied an MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors. A former Curatorial Intern of Decorative Arts at Royal Collection Trust, he previously worked on the National Trust’s Furniture Research and Cataloguing Project. He contributed to the publication Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (2020) and has published in Furniture History. He currently sits on the Furniture History Society Events Committee.