Castle Howard: Acclaimed Italian photographer goes behind the scenes for a new book on England's 'finest country house'

Their wages were small, but what they were producing were items priced beyond their imaginings.

The great, the good and the immeasurably wealthy were going to pay vast sums of money so that their dining tables, cupboards and side tables would look even more wonderful.

A single plate would have covered the wages of one humble worker for a year and more – with plenty of change left over.

All the great country houses of Britain have fine examples of Derby porcelain – as do many other homes and palaces around the world. But let’s have a look at just one piece, in the stunning collection at Castle Howard.

This is a stemmed and footed bowl, which was to be placed on the table, a comport. It was for puddings and fruit – and the fruit was often cooked in sugar, another rare commodity which showed how wealthy your host was.

However, this comport is rather special.

There was a slightly raised rim in the centre of the compote, so that a pineapple could sit up, nicely balanced, in the centre of the dish, in full view of the whole table, so that the fruit could be admired.

It was internationally acclaimed photographer Mattia Aquila who spotted the comport, and featured it, solo, on one of Castle Howard’s highly polished side tables.

Aquila is a world-renowned creative photographer, whose who has collaborated with international companies, designers, architectural firms and institutions – and books.

For it is his beautiful work that is featured in a stunning new publication, Castle Howard: A Grand Tour of England’s Finest Country House.

The text for the book which was launched at the end of October, is from Dr Christopher Ridgway, the go-to expert on both the house and gardens, and curator at Castle Howard since 1984.

“I knew of Mattia’s incredible work in other fields and for other publications and as soon as he was mentioned at the start of this project, just over two years ago, I knew that he was the person who was precisely right for the job,” says Ridgway.

“He was invited over to discuss the ideas we had, and there was an instant rapport. He was given complete carte blanche, access to anything and everything that he wanted. And then we planned in days which fitted in with his schedules…..it worked seamlessly from there.”

Aqila scaled dizzy heights that led him to the very top of the building and all the surrounding landscape features, he was given keys to subterranean stores and passages, and as much time as he wanted to linger, to get the best light and the best shots.

There was a lot of drone photography as well. Nowhere was “off-limits.”

Ridway wrote the text (more than 30,000 words of fascinating explanations and facts), and the resulting book becomes an exclusive, seamless, tour through the estate’s history, architecture, gardens and precious objects.

It ranges through the stories of carved stonework – some of which is hardly ever seen, even by Castle Howard’s most dedicated staff – to the intricately vibrant frescoes many metres above our heads, to letters unearthed from library archives, statues and marble, fabrics and precious paintings.

This remarkable estate – one of Britain’s top tourist attractions, and the residence of the Howard family for more than three centuries – has some of the best views in the county, and Aquila has woven them into the book.

“He has an astonishing eye,” says Ridgway, “and an incredible determination to get the absolute best shots that he could. If it meant him lying on the floor for long stretches of time, just so the light and the shadows were precisely what he wanted them to be. His patience is infinite.”

Nine generations of Howards have lived in this corner of the county, and the current managers are Nichola and Victoria.

Their ancestors, the second and third Earls of Carlisle appears, were the great collectors – books, painting, drawings, furniture, fabrics, you name it, they fell in love with an object, acquired it, and shipped it back home.

Ridgway estimates that, at one time, they owned around 40 masterpieces by Canaletto (or his followers) alone.

Today, because of various reasons (not least the great fire of November 1940) there are only three for us to enjoy.

But, he says, if there was ever a time when that collection could be re-formed for a celebratory exhibition, he knows where to trace each of them, the originals, or their remarkable copies.

The original house (which has been described as “the Versailles of Britain”) was designed by Sir John Banbrugh and Nichola Hawksmoor.

It was commissioned by Charles Howard, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle and who was at one time First Lord of the Treasury to George I.

He may have died down south, but he is buried in the family mausoleum on Castle Howard land. He was almost certainly inspired by Louis XIV of France, and thought of himself as “the Sun King” of Yorkshire.

The building was begun in 1699, and it wasn’t until over a century later that it was considered “complete”.

It should come as no surprise that one of the other best-selling books published by editions.flammarion is an account of Verailles.

“It was, on my part, distilling what I knew into readable form,” says Ridgway.

“There certainly wasn’t, or isn’t, any lack of material. Even after all these years, I am still finding things that are new – re-imagining some of the rooms in the last few months was a wonderful voyage of discovery.

"A bit like moving a favourite piece of furniture into a different place at home – but on a much bigger scale.

"Almost every day I turn in a room, or one of the corridors, or look out of a window, and there’s something completely different to look at, because of the light, or where you stand.

"I think that some of my favourite pictures in the book are of the dome’s interior. Up closer, and amazing.”

Castle Howard: A Grand Tour of England's Finest Country House by Christopher Ridgway, photography by Mattia Aquila, £85 from shop.castlehoward.co.uk