The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss

Edmund de Waal traces a collection of 264 netsuke—tiny Japanese ivory and wood carvings—to reconstruct his ancestors’ history. Inherited from his great-uncle Ignace, these objects provide a physical link to the Ephrussi family, a once-wealthy Jewish banking dynasty. The narrative follows the collection from 1870s Paris salons to the high society of Vienna, documenting how the carvings survived the Nazi seizure of the family's assets. Through specific inventories and house records, de Waal maps the transition of these objects from status symbols to hidden fragments of a lost empire.

Historians and art lovers read this book to understand the intersection of private property and European political shifts. Readers gain a technical perspective on how small aesthetic objects anchor memory when larger legacies are destroyed. It serves those interested in the material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries, offering an account of how provenance functions during periods of displacement. One walks away with a detailed understanding of the specific bureaucratic and personal strategies used to preserve cultural identity against the backdrop of systemic expropriation.

Balanced in tone; a moderate read.

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