The latest additions to our Elegance Series highlight the four elements of Nature.
Ancient philosophies commonly used a set of four archetypal elements to explain the patterns they observed in nature. For these cultures Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire made up the basic building blocks of the universe. The element of Air is vital to human existence, without it we would all perish. Air is the manifestation of movement, freshness, communication and of the intelligence. Sound is another manifestation of this element. As an element, it is invisible, but its reality can be felt in the air that we breathe in every day. Air is the element of new life and new possibilities and is essential to growth. Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance.
Plato’s student Aristotle (384-322 BCE) developed a different explanation for the elements based on pairs of qualities. The four elements were arranged concentrically around the canter of the universe to form the sublunary sphere. According to Aristotle, air is both hot and wet, and occupies a place between fire and water among the elemental spheres. Aristotle definitively separated air from aether. For him, aether was an unchanging, almost divine substance that was found only in the heavens, where it formed celestial spheres.
We have selected vivid light blue and shimmering grey enamel to represent the nature of this element, and the two colours mix fluidly over the crisp guilloche engraving of the barrel. The matching cap motif is accented in the same vivid blue enamel as the barrel. |
