In the last post I mentioned a weakness I had back for buying sprees in the days when Neiman-Marcus and Horchow catalogues would appear in the post. Often it involved silly fripperies that would find their way under the Christmas tree or wrapped as a birthday present. For example: an antique silver brush to clean champagne flutes, a 24k gold-plated toothbrush with whisky and scotch flavoured toothpaste, or a toilet brush from a design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Hey don’t judge – they seemed like good ideas at the time!
But it wasn’t just small items. Oh no! Amongst other things we had tiki torches (nobody had them in those days), a hanging flower basket from Java, and two extremely esoteric tables delivered from the mother-lode in Texas to our door in Ottawa. The torches and basket have long since gone the way of all wicker but the past 40-odd years the two tables have graced living rooms in Ottawa, Aylmer and Charlottetown.
Back in the mid-1970s China was opening for trade with the United States. The good buyers from N-M and Horchow went mad scooping up the bargains to be had and selling them to those of us interesting in being on the cutting edge of interior design. Aside from the porcelain stools and pseudo-Ming vases one item caught my eye. It purported to be a “Chinese Wedding Box” from an undefined period. An octagonal box covered with lacquered calligraphy paper* it is made of a wood – perhaps cedar? – that has remained fragrant to this day.
The lock is an interesting piece of simple technology involving a brass carp, a thin brass strip, and an ingenuous metal spring.
Rather than trying to explain it I thought I’d do a short 20 second video to show how it works.
Though I question its authenticity as a wedding box the canny marketing text suggested that it would make a great side table. And indeed over the years it has!
The word for October 28th is:
Esoteric /ˌesəˈterik/: [adjective]
Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
Mid 17th century: from Greek esōterikos, from esōterō, comparative of esō ‘within’, from es, eis ‘into’.
*Though it was stated that the characters were wishes for health, wealth and happiness heaven only knows what it actually says. One N-M buyer was tricked into purchasing watches that had Chinese characters rather than our standard Arabic numbers. They were suppose to predict good fortune but when they appeared in the catalogue they heard back from a few highly amused customers who read Chinese. It actually said: “We shall take over America by force.” It was removed from sale.
Willy Or Won't He 