From Contemporary Treasures to Elegant Jewelry: A Collecting Style Inspired by Dukes and Duchesses

"It is my intention to transfer the leaf’s beauty and detail into my ceramic work, using it as my own language to weave new stories for objects." – Hitomi Hosono

The delicate porcelain work of Hitomi Hosono captures both the beauty of the material and that of the natural world. The leaves and flowers used in her work are press molded and individually carved in their hundreds and densely applied or 'sprigged' to the porcelain body of the vase. Works by Hitomi are represented in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, London, the Museé Guimet, Paris and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hosono recently completed the Wedgwood Artist in Residence programme reinterpreting the classical forms of Wedgwood with Japanese aesthetics.

Born in Japan and with a BA in silversmithing from Tokyo University, Hiroshi Suzuki moved to the United Kingdom and completed his MA at the Royal College of Art in 1999. Suzuki's pieces are widely admired in the contemporary silver world, as each of his works aim to simulate the patterns found in nature: waves, curves and ripples. Suzuki currently has works in over thirty major public collections across the globe including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.

Colin Reid specializes in kiln-cast glass subsequently cold-worked through grinding, polishing and sandblasting. His work is represented in major public collections in the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan.

Peace Lily Table is part of an innovative and technically challenging series whereby glass tops are cast directly from the large leaves of tropical plant species. The largest work in the series is in the Devonshire Collection and is housed in the Duke's private apartments at Chatsworth. This low table, which is 57 inches long (145cm.), and weighs approximately 120kg, is cast after a leaf from one of the Duke's own banana palms Musa cavendishii, named after the Duke’s family name of Cavendish, and grown in the estate's glasshouses.

Ndidi Ekubia was born in 1973 in Manchester to Nigerian parents, attended the Royal College of Art, and has been represented since 2002 by Adrian Sassoon, in London. Her Sparkle Vase became part of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s permanent collection in 2013, and in 2017, she was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to silversmithing. Of this piece, entitled Spirited Flight, Ekubia says, "this is me going all out. I like using large sheets of metal and letting the pattern flow from the base to the top."

Kate Malone is considered one of the United Kingdom's leading ceramic artists. In a career spanning over 30 years, her work has developed an unmistakable and highly regarded style, through unique and intricately ornamented sculptures and pots.

As her inspiration Malone is drawn to the organic forms found in nature, particularly fruit. Her work is mostly hand built, varying in size from hand-held jugs and pots, to large-scale public work, including art projects in hospitals, schools, parks and libraries. Kate recently collaborated with EPR Architects on the façade of 24 Savile Row, London, which was affixed with 10,000 bespoke crystalline hand-glazed tiles. In 2016 Malone had a solo exhibition at Waddesdon Manor in Aylesbury England, Inspired by Waddesdon, where she created a body of work drawing on the rich archive material of the collection. Throughout her career Malone has researched and pioneered the chemistry of glazing. The sophistication of her glazes and bright vibrant palette gives her work a recognizably strong presence.

"I am always drawn to the visual impact of an aggregate assembled with many small components and find infinite possibilities of the form multiplied ….. uncontrollable beauty is the core of my concept." – Junko Mori

Junko Mori (b.1974) is a Japanese metalworker and graduate of Camberwell College of Arts in London, who creates hand-forged works which are both organic and minimalist. The Sheffield Assay Office was the sponsor enabling her to begin silver work in the UK, and as a result, the first silver piece she ever made is in their collection. Junko made her first appearance at Chatsworth in 2007 as part of a metalwork festival, Galvanize Sheffield, when she was selected by the Sheffield Assay Office to create a steel chandelier in the Great Dining Room. Her work is held in many collections including the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; British Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Honolulu Museum of Art; and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, among others. She is based in North Wales.

Edmund de Waal has been making pots for over 45 years of his life. His art and literature speak of his obsession with the elusive material porcelain, or 'white gold' as it has been referred to over centuries. He is most known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels, which are concerned with ideas of collections and collecting, how objects are displayed together, how they are placed in the spaces they inhabit, and how objects are lost and dispersed. These themes are prevalent in his acclaimed literary works The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, a poignant memoir of his family's ancestral collection of Japanese netsuke, and The White Road, Journey into an Obsession, a history of ceramics and a personal telling of his own passion for porcelain.

At Chatsworth House A Sounding Line, an installation of numerous porcelain vessels of varying form, size and color, was commissioned for the Devonshire Collection. De Waal drew inspiration for the commission from the large collection of porcelain that has historically been on display in the house.

The hinged black enamel bangle is topped with a silver-topped gold antique centerpiece and set with old mine- and rose-cut diamonds.

The earclips suspend natural pearl drops measuring approximately 11.5 x 12.0 x 14.5 and 11.2 x 12.0 x 14.3 mm, capped with rose-cut diamonds, from lines of baguette and square-cut diamonds.

This sautoir suspends a seed pearl tassel, capped by old mine, old European and rose-cut diamonds, on a surmount composed of old European-cut diamonds and a pearl. The chain is composed of three rows of seed pearls, spaced by openwork plaques set with old European-cut diamonds.

The festoon necklace is set with swags of old mine and old European-cut diamonds.

Formerly in the collection of Princess Armand d’Arenberg, each earring suspends a fringe of nine old mine-cut diamonds, surmounted by scrolling lines of graduated single-cut diamonds, further topped by two old mine-cut diamonds. The pendants are detachable with later-added ear hooks.