Take five: wedding flutters

When COUNTRY LIFE’s Henry Avray Tipping spotted a 17th-century four poster languishing in a Herefordshire attic in 1911, he set off a chain of events that saw the bed leave its ancestral home and land at The Met in New York

As summer temperatures continue to soar, fans–long considered a fashion anachronism–are back in the style spotlight, says Jack Watkins

Marie Antoinette’s passion for furniture and genius for bagatelles, however evanescent their purpose, filled the French royal palaces with beauty and charm, as Matthew Dennison reveals

With a strength of character that belied her fragile looks, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun pushed the boundaries of royal portraiture and, after the French Revolution, challenged the loss of female influence via every frill and fold in her work

Founded in the 18th century to launch the daughters of the aristocracy into Society, Queen Charlotte’s Ball has been revived and modernised for a new generation. Eleanor Doughty finds out what’s changed–and what hasn’t

Our round-up of the funny, fascinating and unusual stories this fortnight