Visit the Butler Museum

The Butler Museum is a 400 sqm, purpose – built museum in Dorset. It houses around 650 pieces of porcelain from the Butler Collection and exceptionally, the pieces are not behind glass allowing the very limited number of visitors to handle the porcelain and see it from all angles.

Visiting the collection is a truly unique experience and only 12 visits of maximum 20 people will take place a year. Katharine Butler will take the tour, and will explain the history of the collection and of 17th century Chinese Porcelain.

Sir Michael Butler completed the museum in his garden in 2009. His collection had previously been distributed amongst various old apple sheds and workshops, but after his exhibition in 2005 – 6 which travelled to the Shanghai Museum and then on to the Victoria and Albert, Sir Michael felt the pieces needed a more distinguished setting.

Although 250 pieces were removed from the museum following Sir Michael’s death in 2013, another 300 were added from those he kept in his 2 homes plus over 50 that have subsequently been acquired by his daughter Katharine, meaning that over 650 pieces are now on display.

BOOK YOUR VISIT

Tickets cost £20 per person. The private tour is conducted by Katharine Butler and will take around 90 minutes. Full address details and further instructions will be included in your confirmation email.

Photography is not permitted and you will be asked to leave coats and bulky bags in the cloakroom. Tickets are non-refundable. However, please contact us in the case you have to cancel and we can discuss the options. We reserve the right to reject a booking even after payment and in these cases, we will refund the booking. Ticket payment can be made via Bank Transfer (or a PayPal account or with a Debit or Credit card which temporarily is glitchy).

If the date you wish to come is sold out, please get in touch via the CONTACT link and we will do our best to find a time for you.

There are no forthcoming dates at present. please contact us throught the contact link