The Imperial, in collaboration with Perrier-Jouët, is launching “Eden” – a garden pavilion seating 14 people.
The “Eden” pavilion has been conceived by French-born London artist and designer Henry Chebaane as a multi-layered narrative embracing Perrier-Jouët heritage since 1811, the work of Victorian botanist Robert Fortune (a long time Chelsea resident) and the history of the local area that orchards and gardens covered for centuries.
The fresh, floral and feminine mood aims to reflect the elegantly natural style of Perrier-Jouët: a backdrop of white bricks and timbers is accented with a multitude of vintage gardening tools and wire boxes in soft shimmering gold evoking the prominence of Chardonnay in the PJ house style.
“An abundance of live plants provide accents of greens and white, including Tea bushes, Convolvulus Cneorum and the Japanese anemone”
Vintage artefacts include a French willow basket for the harvest of Champagne grapes and a Wardian case used in Victorian times to transport live plants during long sea voyages.
An abundance of live plants provide accents of greens and white, including Tea bushes (Camellia Sinensis), Convolvulus Cneorum and the Japanese anemone: a flower emblematic of the house of Perrier-Jouët since first painted by Art Nouveau artist Emile Gallé in 1902.
The anemone is also one of the many species brought to Britain by plant hunter Robert Fortune. He introduced it in 1847 on his return from China from where he also smuggled out live tea seedlings to plant in India thereby terminating China’ monopoly on the tea trade.
The anemone was then brought to Eastern France where it spontaneously evolved into the magnificent white cultivar “Honorine Joubert” that so captivated Emile Gallé and Perrier-Jouët.
To further enhance the experiential nature of the “Eden” pavilion, Henry Chebaane has created an enchanting site-specific art installation made of several hundred white butterflies circling a botanically-inspired chandelier.
Covering the entire ceiling,”Born of Flower” is a conceptual piece about the human joy produced by nature’s life cycle from flower to fruit to wine, made possible by the pollination of butterflies, themselves seen poetically as “flying flowers”.
