LEPORELLO
Commissioned by The Queen’s Green Canopy and exhibited at Sotheby’s London in 2022
An Artist's Proof of the Leporello has been acquired by the British Library for the National Collection.
12 photographic reproductions of artworks by Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis
Tree marbled case by MBE Trevor Lloyd
Large golden section
3 copies, of which 2 are part of the Royal Collection
Art Director Katy Mawhood, Squarepeg Co
Housed in solander box with laid-in original artwork by Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis
“This limited edition, tree-marbled leperello book represents an intimate collaboration of art and design, traditional craft, nature and Britain’s royal heritage. Comprising a selection of rare artwork reproductions signed by Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis commissioned to portray the Ancient Woodlands and Trees dedicated to the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 to mark the Platinum Jubilee. It is a vibrant legacy, etched for eternity.
The elegant design mimics the travel souvenir leperellos of the Victorian era, depicting highly detailed panoramic scenes cropped from Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis’ original artwork, revealing a gallery in printed form. Every intricate element is finely curated, from the intensity of the ink to the crackle of the paper, to immerse oneself into an ancient arboretum. This majesty of explorations surpasses the traditional book, with a sculptural drama of immense magnitude emerging from a series of folds.
At the Sotheby’s exhibition (December 2022), the leperello presented a rare opportunity to compare printed reproductions with the artist’s originals, displayed as a three dimensional object of 4.2 metres (13 feet 9 inches) in length, to be viewed from all angles. The leperello is housed within an exquisitely hand crafted solander box, with Green Colorado Liffey, brass-die foil, lined with Palladium Suedel, silver ribbons, each leperello inset with an original painting by Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis.
The leperello is headed by a casebound folio that helps preserve the endangered craft of treemarbling, complimented along the spine with Woodland Calf from the Highgrove Estate and 23 karat gold-leaf. The tree pattern is hand-marbled by Trevor Lloyd MBE, one of only two known experts world-wide to practice this rare decorative technique. First used in the late 1770s it became very popular, yet it is challenging to execute well. The pattern is a result of an aqueous solution of chemicals on leather. To shape a tree and its crown of branches.
The term “leperello” is an eponym from the manservant in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1778). During the Catalogue Aria, Leperello produces an accordion style list that he unfolds to reveal the “mille e tre” (a thousand and three) mistresses of his master. Serving as a bridge between the scroll and contemporary book, the leperello’s signature characteristic is its ability to open up and expand indefinitely as a three dimensional object. When the leperello is folded, it mirrors the efficient structure of a traditional book, to be enjoyed page by page.
This expansion and contraction epitomizes the changing forms of our woodlands, as Thomas Carlyle expresses: “when the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.”
Katy Mawhood