A country estate is a substantial rural landholding centred on a principal house, together with its parkland, gardens, home farm, woodland, tenanted farms, cottages and ancillary buildings such as stables, lodges, dairies and kitchen gardens. In Britain such estates were the economic and social foundations of the landed gentry and aristocracy for centuries.
The great age of the British country estate ran from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, when wealth from agriculture, trade and industry funded new houses, landscaped parks and well-equipped service wings. Agricultural depression, death duties and the impact of two world wars led to the break-up of many estates in the twentieth century, and the resulting country house sales released enormous quantities of furniture, lighting, paintings, silver, garden ornament and fittings onto the market. Objects with a documented estate history, perhaps marked with an inventory number, crest or house name, carry added interest and value. The country estate also lends its name to a decorating style that favours generous proportions, well-worn antiques, sporting pictures, sturdy oak and mahogany, and a relaxed mix of periods accumulated over generations.
