The Collection

In 1998, the Handel House Collections Trust acquired the Byrne Collection, a major Handel collection which consists of several hundred objects including a letter from Handel to Charles Jennens regarding Belshazzar and Messiah, an autograph leaf from Esther, Mozart's arrangement of a Handel fugue, John Mainwaring's Memoirs of the life of the late George Frederic Handel (1760) annotated by Jennens, early editions of operas and oratorios, and prints, portraits and sculpture.

In 1996 and 1998 respectively, the Collections Trust also acquired two important oil paintings: a portrait of one of Handel's opera sopranos Faustina Bordoni (?1700-81) by Bartolomeo Nazari (1699-1758) and a portrait of Jennens by Thomas Hudson (1701-79).

A selection of prints and paintings from the collection is displayed in 25 Brook Street alongside loans from major national collections including a magnificent portrait of Handel after Thomas Hudson. By the time he died, Handel owned over eighty paintings suggesting that, in his time too, the principal rooms of the house would have been covered with fine art.

A selection of manuscripts and printed scores from the collection is displayed in the adjoining 23 Brook Street.