Picture: Sam Chatto, Instagram
While Prince William and Prince Harry generally get all the attention reserved for young male royals in the UK, there are some outlying royals who are equally worthy of our attention. Princess Margaret's grandsons Sam and Arthur Chatto are two such. The sons of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon's daughter Lady Sarah, who married artist Daniel Chatto in 1994, the pair, 23 and 21 respectively, are starting to make their way in the world.
Both boys attended Eton and went on to study History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, but Sam is now carving out a distinctly un-royal career for himself as a potter. It does run in the family to some extent; his mother and father are both professional artists, although both are very discreet about it. Sam, on the other hand, has been charting his progress via his Instagram account, @samchatto.
In 2018 Chatto undertook a six week apprenticeship at North Shore Pottery in Scotland, about which he waxed lyrical on his Instagram account at the beginning of 2019."2018 was such an incredible year of self reflection and growth for me. I spent six weeks in the very north of Scotland immersed in pottery and ceramics, being taught by the most patient and passionate potter. Clay consumed my every waking hour and I am so excited to see what I can achieve this year!" His posts are filled with praise for the meditative and reflective aspects of creating ceramics, a philosophy that's in line with one of his other main occupations, yoga, which he is trained to teach.
Since his time at North Shore Pottery Chatto has gone from strength to strength: he launched his own website samchatto.com to sell his creations in the middle of 2019, and more recently exhibited three pots in a show at At The Chapel, a restaurant in trendy Bruton, Somerset, near to Hauser & Wirth and its craft outpost, Make. "The cup and mug emerged from my reflections on Ancient Athenian and Medieval English pottery," he explained in an Instagram post, "while the middle white jug came from a new experimental approach to throwing porcelain, where I've been exploring the limits of the medium and allowing natural processes a greater role, essentially enjoying imperfections and warping and celebrating nature's role in our lives, rather than trying to control every tiny thing."
This article originally appeared on House & Garden UK.
