A country house is a large house in the countryside, traditionally the principal residence of a landed family and the centre of an agricultural estate. In Britain, country houses range from modest manor houses to vast stately homes, and they have played a central role in the nation's architecture, social history and collecting traditions.
Many country houses were built or remodelled in successive fashionable styles, from Tudor and Jacobean to Baroque, Palladian, Neoclassical and Victorian Gothic, often by leading architects such as Vanbrugh, Kent, Adam and Wyatt. Their interiors were furnished over centuries with fine furniture, paintings, sculpture, silver, porcelain and libraries, often acquired on the Grand Tour or commissioned from leading makers. During the twentieth century, taxation, war and changing social conditions led to the sale or demolition of many houses and the dispersal of their contents, which today appear on the antiques market. Objects with a documented country house provenance are especially prized, and the relaxed, collected country house style continues to inspire interior design.
