Leighton’s collections of ceramics and tiles in the Arab Hall and in the dining room, celebrate the artistic cultural heritage of North Africa, The Middle East and Iran.

Leighton collected and purchased ceramics during his travels to Syria, Turkey, Greece and  Egypt and transported them to the UK by sea. Those ceramics included underglaze Damascus tiles, blue and white Iznic tiles, and Mamluk underglaze tiles. Such fascination of the West with artistic works from the Islamic World later influenced the Victorian Art and Crafts Movement.

This body of work suggests multiple messages: the cultural exchange that transcends political conflict, and the dichotomy between detachment and attachment that people experience as they attempt to find balance between what they left behind and their present path.

Each constellation contains 3 different sculptures, representing multiplicity: what they shed, what they adopt, and what they maintain.