“Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois”
November 6, 2025-March 29, 2026
L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, in partnership with France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN), presents a retrospective dedicated to the collection of the great twentieth-century French writer Roger Caillois (1913-1978) from November 6, 2025 to March 29, 2026.
Driven by his insatiable curiosity, scientific precision and boundless imagination, this master of the French language collected stones with passion and erudition for over twenty-five years. Today this invaluable collection, the lion’s share of which is housed at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, in large part thanks to the support of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, counts more than one thousand specimens.
Roger Caillois’s passion for minerals resulted in writings of an exceptionally poetic nature. From 1959 onwards, he published essays inspired by his collection of “picture stones” including The Writing of Stones, his most renowned work, which was first printed in 1970. He was elected to the Académie Française the following year.
The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois” delves into the writer’s intimate ties to the mineral world. It includes iconic texts penned by Roger Caillois and nearly two hundred minerals from his collection, now part of the France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle’s collections.
SCIENTIFIC CURATOR
François Farges, curator of this exhibition, is Professor at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle and scientist in charge of the MNHN’s collections of gems and objets d’art.
PUBLICATION
Pierres anagogiques
The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois,” conceived in partnership with France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, will be accompanied by the publication of a landmark work, Pierres anagogiques, copublished by L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts and Éditions Gallimard. Available in French, this unprecedented volume, which includes a majority of texts rediscovered by François Farges in 2023, could likely have been Roger Caillois’s last great poetic project.
320 pages / Language: French
A standard edition will be available at L’Escarboucle, the bookshop of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts and other bookshops in France (49 €).
A collector’s edition of 100 numbered copies will be available exclusively at L’Escarboucle, the bookshop of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts (180 €).
CULTURAL PROGRAMMING
Talks on the exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois”
Monday 1st December, 2025 at 7 p.m. – MNHN Auditorium
Tuesday 3rd February, 2026 at 8 p.m. – Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau
Monday 23rd February, 2026 – online
Encounters of L’Escarboucle on the book Pierres anagogiques
Wednesday 28th January, 2026 at 7 p.m – Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau
Round table discussion on the academician sword of Roger Caillois
Tuesday 3rd March, 2026 at 8 p.m – Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau
Children workshop: Crowns and Swords (6-8 years)
Photography exhibition: La Susceptibilité des Roches. Echoing the exhibition, Juliette Agnel takes over the first floor of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts on the occasion of the festival Photo Days from November 6th to 30th.
“Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois”
November 6, 2025-March 29, 2026
L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts,
With the support of Van Cleef & Arpels
Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau
16 bis boulevard Montmartre, Paris 9
Free admission, upon reservation
Free visits
Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Open late on Thursdays, until 9 p.m.
Free guided tours
For adults:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 3:15 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.,
and Thursdays at 6:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.
For children 7 and older:
Saturdays at 3:15 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., with additional tours
during school vacations
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