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The Table of Failed Art
May. 25th, 2006 02:03 pmThis is a post left over from our France trip, which has been waiting for various things, notably the availability of the image that shows up below.
On the next-to-last night of the trip, we had dinner at the fairly upscale restaurant attached to the Best Western Hotel Beau Site in Rocamadour (which was not the hotel in which we were staying, in whose restaurant we had eaten the previous night). I noticed that most of the tables were provided with a simple, slender silver-metal (probably stainless steel) vase containing a sprig of lily-of-the-valley. (Lily-of-the-valley -- muguet -- was much in evidence at the time; the streets were full of folks offering sprigs of it for sale.) Not our table, however. We were provided with not one, but two "special" decorations.
Our vase was a huge glass thing shaped something like a short-stemmed goblet, about 6 inches across the top and 14 inches high, somewhere between half and two-thirds full of water. It did contain the obligatory sprig of muguet, but the poor thing was dwarfed by its own leaves, not to mention the vase itself, as well what it had to share the vase with: several thick plant stalks (or slices of stalk) that had just begun to develop roots, some of them upright and one of them floating on the surface; a handful of clear glass balls, slightly larger than ordinary marbles, and presumably hollow, as they were also floating; and a pink wax flower, floating face down on the surface (I have a suspicion that, if upright, it might have proved to be a candle).
At the other end of the table was an object, maybe 8-10 inches high, that looked something like this:
The "cup" section at the top was red glass with a couple of gold (or brass) bands, and studded somewhat irregularly with jewel-like objects; the rim had a sizeable chip missing. The base was solid black steel; the upright was slightly tilted. It looked like it was probably supposed to contain a candle (I think it may actually have contained one, albeit without any visible wick). The dangly bits were red glass. The sketch and the description barely begin to hint at its awfulness.
Fortunately the table was a little larger than most of the tables for two, so there was actually room for the food in addition to these remarkable objets.
P.S. The meal was excellent.
On the next-to-last night of the trip, we had dinner at the fairly upscale restaurant attached to the Best Western Hotel Beau Site in Rocamadour (which was not the hotel in which we were staying, in whose restaurant we had eaten the previous night). I noticed that most of the tables were provided with a simple, slender silver-metal (probably stainless steel) vase containing a sprig of lily-of-the-valley. (Lily-of-the-valley -- muguet -- was much in evidence at the time; the streets were full of folks offering sprigs of it for sale.) Not our table, however. We were provided with not one, but two "special" decorations.
Our vase was a huge glass thing shaped something like a short-stemmed goblet, about 6 inches across the top and 14 inches high, somewhere between half and two-thirds full of water. It did contain the obligatory sprig of muguet, but the poor thing was dwarfed by its own leaves, not to mention the vase itself, as well what it had to share the vase with: several thick plant stalks (or slices of stalk) that had just begun to develop roots, some of them upright and one of them floating on the surface; a handful of clear glass balls, slightly larger than ordinary marbles, and presumably hollow, as they were also floating; and a pink wax flower, floating face down on the surface (I have a suspicion that, if upright, it might have proved to be a candle).
At the other end of the table was an object, maybe 8-10 inches high, that looked something like this:
The "cup" section at the top was red glass with a couple of gold (or brass) bands, and studded somewhat irregularly with jewel-like objects; the rim had a sizeable chip missing. The base was solid black steel; the upright was slightly tilted. It looked like it was probably supposed to contain a candle (I think it may actually have contained one, albeit without any visible wick). The dangly bits were red glass. The sketch and the description barely begin to hint at its awfulness.
Fortunately the table was a little larger than most of the tables for two, so there was actually room for the food in addition to these remarkable objets.
P.S. The meal was excellent.
