De Gournay’s Latest Porcelain Revives a Storied Eye

In the serene, green-dappled world of Upperville, Virginia, there exists a library that is less a collection of books and more a sanctuary of obsession. This is the Oak Spring Garden Library, the intellectual epicentre of the late Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon, a woman who possessed the rare ability to make a thousand-acre estate feel as intimate as a potting shed. Mrs. Mellon was a horticulturalist of the highest order, a woman who redesigned the White House Rose Garden and yet famously preferred the “informal” look of a garden table left out under a passing cloud.

It is this specific, curated nonchalance that de Gournay, the purveyors of hand-painted wallpaper, have sought to capture in their latest porcelain endeavour. The new series, titled Le Jardin Curieux, is the newest collection in their ongoing collaboration with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. It is, in the most literal sense, an archive brought to lunch.

“Her passionate and unwavering patronage of the arts and the handmade resonates deeply with our own dedication,” said Hannah Cecil Gurney, de Gournay’s Director. “As a true legend of American design, it is a remarkable opportunity for us to be immersed within Mrs. Mellon’s incredible world.”