Understanding and Interpreting La Tournerie

Abstract Historical interiors, often known as period rooms, are included in the Europe 1600–1815 Galleries on the basis of the rooms’ quality as individual objects of art and design, their importance in providing a sense of architecture and scale, their role in enabling a change of pace and atmosphere and their great popularity with visitors. They are hugely problematic museum objects, for both practical and conceptual reasons, and they presented numerous challenges in terms of research, conservation and display. This article reveals the thinking behind the presentation of one particular room – the bedchamber from La Tournerie, a late seventeenth-century country house in north west France.