The Woburn Abbey Collection is thrilled to announce the successful acquisition of a salad bowl from the Bedford Gift Service.

This extremely important dinner and dessert service was manufactured by Sèvres and presented by King Louis XV of France to Duchess Gertrude in 1763. Her husband, the 4^th Duke of Bedford, had been ambassador to France and helped to negotiate the Peace Treaty that ended the Seven Years War.

Originally comprising 180 glazed pieces to serve fourteen diners, the majority of the service is still preserved at Woburn. It is exciting to have returned one of the missing pieces, especially as now all four salad bowls of the original gift are here.

Damaged items from the service have recently been conserved in anticipation of an ambitious redisplay of all of the pieces – only a fraction of the service has been displayed in recent years.