I first picked up The Hare with the Amber Eyes: a Hidden Inheritance as holiday reading. I was drawn by the title, but, expecting fiction, I instead found a manual on material culture that is worthy of the reading list of any museum studies student or professional.
Edmund de Waal wrote the book after inheriting a collection of 264 netsuke, tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings.
He tells the story of his search for their history, which becomes that of their various owners, from their first collector, Charles Ephrussi, a cousin of his great-grandfather in 1870s Paris, via Vienna, to post-war Tokyo and finally to London.
This account is an inspirational example of how to start with an object, and weave a tale from it which makes the reader feel a connection with the individual family members, and then through their stories reveal a wider historical picture.
De Waal is a potter by profession and he has a feel for sculpture. His description of the tactile nature of the netsuke leaves you wanting to track them down and stroke them. De Waal’s book ends with an invitation to see more photographs of the netsuke on his website, where seeing each one felt like meeting an old friend.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes is also a musing on collectors and collecting, how to look at art, and on the meaning of the glass case itself.
Cressida Finch is exhibitions manager at the Imperial War Museum, London
Edmund de Waal wrote the book after inheriting a collection of 264 netsuke, tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings.
He tells the story of his search for their history, which becomes that of their various owners, from their first collector, Charles Ephrussi, a cousin of his great-grandfather in 1870s Paris, via Vienna, to post-war Tokyo and finally to London.
This account is an inspirational example of how to start with an object, and weave a tale from it which makes the reader feel a connection with the individual family members, and then through their stories reveal a wider historical picture.
De Waal is a potter by profession and he has a feel for sculpture. His description of the tactile nature of the netsuke leaves you wanting to track them down and stroke them. De Waal’s book ends with an invitation to see more photographs of the netsuke on his website, where seeing each one felt like meeting an old friend.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes is also a musing on collectors and collecting, how to look at art, and on the meaning of the glass case itself.
Cressida Finch is exhibitions manager at the Imperial War Museum, London
