Visit the Butler Museum
The Butler Museum is a 400 sqm, purpose – built museum near Blandford Forum in Dorset. It houses around 700 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 take place a year. Katharine Butler will take your tour, and will explain the history of the family 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 90 that have subsequently been acquired by his daughter Katharine, meaning that there are over 700 pieces now on display.
BOOK YOUR VISIT
Tickets cost £25 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 sometimes is glitchy).
If your preferred date is sold out, please get in touch via the CONTACT link and we will do our best to find a time for you.
The next dates for visits are on
10th June and 3rd july 2024.
click below to buy your tickets
