The Christmas Forest

Description

Adam Wide has the world’s largest brooch collection (around 8,000) which happens to be all Christmas themed. The vast majority of the brooches are representations of Christmas trees. Some of this extraordinary collection will be on display in the house this Christmas, carefully curated into different themes - which will form the springboard for this entertaining talk.

Inviting you to get up close to a selection of the jewels, Adam will explore not only the history of Christmas brooches, their many designers and the ups and downs of creating and collecting ‘The Christmas Forest’ over the years, but he will also explore some fun facts about the festive season itself. For example, did you know that the first English Christmas tree was put up well before Victoria and Albert - when Queen Charlotte started the tradition in Windsor Castle in 1800, or that because of her antlers, Rudolf the red-nose reindeer could only have been female?

It will be a fun, hands on talk with examples of what to look for when buying costume jewellery, how to determine the age of certain items, how best to clean and repair your precious heirlooms and an introduction to storing your treasures and collecting generally.

Tickets to this illustrated talk include access to the house beforehand to explore Christmas at Chatsworth (entry tickets will be allocated at 10am and 10.15am). This will give you the opportunity to enjoy the house and view Adam's collection before making your way up to our garden learning centre The Old Potting Shed at 11.50am for a 12pm talk. The talk includes tea and coffee and an opportunity to ask questions.

Adam was seen on BBC’s Bargain Hunt last year where Christina Trevanion presented him with the official Guinness World Records title of ‘The World’s Largest Brooch Collection’.