PYRAMIDS OF MAKKUM | STUDIO MAKKINK & BEY

The Royal Tichelaar Makkum’s complex restoration of a seventeenth-century flower pyramid, one of the most prized pieces in the Rijksmuseum, prompted it to assign the 2008 project Pyramids of Makkum to four designers with whom the company felt it had a very close relationship.

Studio Makkink & Bey was asked to come up with a contemporary response to the flower tower. They had to keep to the idea of an ‘ornamental vase’ and stay within the dimensions of the original flower tower. The designers were at liberty to include any aspect of the historical context or tower they so desired.

Jurgen Bey came up with the idea of buckets, which can be stacked up to become the pyramid flower tower. ‘Buckets used to be made from wood, leather or metal: today plastic reigns. The flower tower is an ode to the collector, in whose hoard of curiosities the ceramic vase has evolved to become the plastic bucket’s equivalent.’

© Blommers & Schumm, Studio Marten Aukes
Additional information
ARTIST Royal Tichelaar Makkum
SERIES Pyramids of Makkum
DIMENSIONS 160 x 50 x 50 cm, 63 × 19.7 × 19.7 in
EDITION 7 + 2 AP
MATERIALS Earthenware
PRICE $ 100,000
YEAR 2008
PROOF OF AUTHENTICITY Certificate
AVAILABILITY Directly Available