Ranger’s House in Greenwich, home to a world-class art collection, opens to the public today (Monday 23 July) following a re-presentation project by English Heritage.

The elegant Georgian villa in Greenwich Park is home to the Wernher Collection – an assortment of over 700 works of fine and decorative art amassed by diamond magnate Julius Wernher in the late nineteenth century. The collection showcases the exceptional craftsmanship of artists working across Europe and includes ornate medieval jewellery, Gothic sculptures, Italian ceramics, Renaissance paintings, eighteenth-century French furniture and British portraits.

Now English Heritage, which cares for the property, has refreshed the visitor experience at Ranger’s House. After previously being open for guided tours only, as from today the galleries will be open to the public on a free-flow basis from Sunday to Wednesday during the summer so visitors can enjoy the outstanding artworks at their own pace. The charity has also installed new interpretation based on new research to better tell the story of the Wernher Collection and highlight the outstanding quality of its objects.

The collection is displayed across eleven period rooms and includes a series of ‘star objects’ that visitors will be invited to find out more about. Highlights include a gold earring in the shape of Victory, the Greek goddess of war, which dates back to 2 BC; an exquisitely-carved pendant in the shape of a skull from around 1500; a glittering silver gilt, steel and nautilus shell cup and a beautiful enamelled jug depicting the Greek god Triton.

Dr Sarah Moulden, Curator of Collections at English Heritage, said: “The Wernher Collection is one of the greatest private collections of art ever assembled in Europe, and is unique in both its quality and breadth. Many of the works are extremely rare and unique examples of their kind. Displayed together, their individual stories reveal much about the making, meaning and movement of art objects on a world stage.

“Sir Julius Wernher had a distinct eye for quality and collected objects from across Europe and beyond. His particular passion was for what he called the ‘splendidly ugly’, artworks mainly from the medieval and Renaissance periods, which were typically small, unusual in their subject matter and expertly crafted from richly embellished materials. Most of the ivories, metalwork, woodcarvings and enamels you can see at Ranger’s embody these characteristics. And in their iconography, intended functions and histories, they encapsulate universal human concerns such as love and death, storytelling and devotion, beauty and identity.”

The Wernher Collection was originally displayed at Bath House, Wernher’s London townhouse in Piccadilly, and his country estate, Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire. After the closure of Luton Hoo in the 1990s, the opportunity arose for English Heritage to work with the Wernher Foundation to display a large part of the collection at Ranger’s House on a 125 year loan.

English Heritage acquired Ranger’s in 1986 after its own historic collections had long been dispersed, and although Wernher never lived at the house, photographs showing how he displayed the collection in his own homes have informed how the rooms and objects are presented at Ranger’s today.

The Wernher Collection will reopen to the public on Monday 23 July and will be open Sunday to Wednesday until the end of September. For more information, visit: www.english-heritage.org.uk/rangershouse.