Book: The Hare with the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal

“Objects have always been . . . stolen, retrieved and lost. It is how you tell their stories that matters.”

The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox.

The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection. In this book, he traces the story of his family through the story of the collection. What results is a highly original meditation on art, history, and family.

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