THE ROTHSCHILD FOUNDATION PURCHASE 'A PAIR OF CAILLOUTÉ' VASES BY MICHAEL EDEN FOR WADDESDON MANOR

We are delighted to announce that Waddesdon Manor have purchased A Pair of Caillouté Vases by Michael Eden.

The Pair of Caillouté Vases are based on pieces in the Waddesdon collection made by the Sèvres manufactory in the late 18th century. I was particularly attracted to one of these vases that is decorated with a surface pattern known as caillouté (pebbled). Apparently, this pattern was inspired by early microscopy imagery of cell structures.

During the period when these and other extraordinary ceramic vases were made, there was a strong interest in science and natural history, which was sometimes reflected in surface decoration of decorative objects. The bringing together of art and science in a decorative object is unusual now, but at the time when these vases were made there was much less separation between branches of learning. Groups of learned people such as the Lunar Society would explore wide-ranging interests and treated the arts, humanities and sciences as compatible equals, a view that we would do well to return to. In order to reflect on this, I created a 3-dimensional caillouté structure, which surrounds an abstracted interpretation of the central cartouche illustration.