You forget the scale, breadth and quality of the Wallace Collection – a treasure house of art off the tourist trail in Hertford House, north of the shopping frenzy in Oxford Street – with superlative examples of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries, in particular a strong emphasis on work from France purchased during the sales from aristocratic collections after the French Revolution, rivalling that of the Rothschilds at Waddeston Manor.

The Collection has just undertaken a £1.2 million redevelopment of its exhibition spaces in the lower floor to create a new special exhibition gallery, which is splendid on the inside though the exterior joinery onto the staircase does not seem to match the quality of that in the rest of the house – hopefully this is a temporary situation.

For the first exhibition, the new gallery is in darkness, showing 20 individually displayed and lit treasures collected by Sir Richard Wallace, the supposed illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hereford, who inherited the collection and the house on the Marquess’s death in 1870 and spent the next 20 years adding treasures from all around the world to it and creating the collection that we see today.

There is a huge amount to see upstairs in the main rooms; this exhibition allows visitors to learn a little more about Sir Richard and also focus on 20 superlative from different dates and different cultures, each  gem in its own right.