Edmund de Waal
Edmund de Waal (Edmund Arthur Lowndes de Waal) was born on September 10th, 1964 and is currently 60 years old. Edmund de Waal was born in Nottingham, England. de Waal attended the University of Cambridge where he received a first-class honours degree and the University of Sheffield where he received a post-graduate diploma in Japanese language.
Edmund de Waal is a contemporary potter, author, and artist. He’s best known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to archives and collections or the history of a particular place.
While he was attending The King’s School, Canterbury, he was taught pottery by Geoffrey Whiting. Then, when Edmund was 17, he started a 2 year long apprenticeship with Whiting, deferring entry into University of Cambridge. It was during the apprenticeship that Edmund made hundreds of stoneware and earthenware pots, like honey pots and casseroles.
Upon graduating, he started following discipline of British studio pottery, in order to create inexpensive domestic pots with some good earth tone colors. Then he moved to Herefordshire where he built a kiln and set up a pottery making functional stoneware pots in the Leach tradition, however the enterprise wasn’t financially successful. He moved to inner city Sheffield in 1988 and started experimenting with porcelain.
In 1993, he settled in London and started making his distinctive ceramics: porcelain with a celadon glaze. He focused on essentially classical vessel shapes yet with the inclusion of indentations or pinches and some subtle variations on texture and tone in the style Edmund started back during his time in Japan, these pots slowly gained attention from the British craft industry leading to him having his first exhibition in 1995 at Egg London.
The Hare with Amber Eyes was awarded the Costa Book Award for Biography, Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Nonfiction.
Letters to Camondo is a tragic family history that’s told in a collection of imaginary letters to Moise de Camondo, a famed collector.
The Camondos were a Jewish family from Constantinople who made their home in Paris during the 1870s and became art collectors, philanthropists, and fixtures of Belle Epoque high society, along with being targets of antisemitism, a lot like de Waal’s relations, the Ephrussi family, to whom they were connected. Moise created a spectacular house and packed it full of art for Nissim, his son. After Nissim got killed during the First World War, the house got bequeathed to the French State. Then eventually, the Camondos got murdered by the Nazis.
After Edmund, one of the world’s greatest ceramic artists, got invited to make an exhibition in the Camondo house, he started writing letters to Moise. These 50 letters are deeply personal reflections on assimilation, the value of memory, family, art, melancholy, and the vicissitudes of history.
Edmund de Waal: Awards & Accolades
de Waal's book, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss won the British Book Awards, Debut Book of the Year, in 2010.
Related Authors
The most common authors followed by users who also follow Edmund de Waal are:
- Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale Series.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings Series.
- Simon Winchester, author of the novel: The Professor and the Madman.
- J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
- Stieg Larsson, author of the Millennium Series.
Edmund de Waal: F.A.Q
When was Edmund de Waal Born? How old is Edmund de Waal?
Edmund de Waal was born on September 10th, 1964. Edmund de Waal is currently 60 years old.
Where was Edmund de Waal Born?
Edmund de Waal was born in Nottingham, England and is English.
What book awards has Edmund de Waal won?
de Waal's book, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss won the award British Book Awards, Debut Book of the Year, in 2010.
What was the first book Edmund de Waal wrote?
The first book written by Edmund de Waal was St. Ives Artists: Bernard Leach, published in 1997.
What was the most recent book Edmund de Waal wrote?
His most recently released work was Poor Crisp: Some Shards and Fragments on November 1st, 2021.
Will there be any more books by Edmund de Waal?
Edmund de Waal does not have any upcoming books with a set publication date within the next few months at this time.
How many books has Edmund de Waal written?
Edmund de Waal has written 12 books excluding contributions to anthologies. 9 books in the Non-Fiction Books, 2 books in the Collections, 1 book in the World of Art Series.