Shell shocked

In love with a shell

Just back from BRAFA; the Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair. It was brutally cold but inside the cavernous former postal sorting office plunked down in the middle of nowhere (if you happen to be staying in the center of Brussels), it was toasty. Just to cheer us up they had branches of cherry blossoms in the central aisles. Nice. I suppose There were more than a hundred exhibitors and thousands of objects, furniture, jewellery and paintings for sale and one shell that stole my heart. A shell. A three thousand year old shell. At the fair I ran into a collector I know and I tried to get her to come with me to see it. I can understand why she didn't want to troop up and down the aisles because I saw I seashell and feel in love. It was at the stand of Archeologie a Paris gallery. If I had a spare 220,000 euros, which is what the dealer is asking for, I would buy it. It does seem like an awful lot of money. Or maybe not. I have no idea of what the going rate for a "rare tridacne shell carved in the shape of a bird of prey (probably an owl)" is. Or if there is one. A quick Google tells me that tridacne is the largest bivalve mollusc. The king of seashells. Or anyway the giant among them. I have slept on it and no, I am not going to swap the roof over my head for a magnificent sea shell.

    This owl is said to have been carved in the Mediterranean in 8000 b.c. when the Phoenicians were in residence. Maybe he is not an owl; the label is more firm that this is the image of a bird of prey. Its face is menacing but magnificent .the incised carving both front and back is beautiful--feathering but also like a message --about what?. The creature has survived for thousands of years. I didn't dare ask to hold him. The catalogue says he is 10 x 18 centimetres probably too big to hold in one hand. But this guy has fantastic have presence.(Yes yes maybe the guy is a girl owl he just seems male.)

  What if I did have the money and the owl came to live in the house... Would we feel protected by him or scared?  I think maybe both but I am sure that metaphorically, at least, I would walk on tip toes when I went into the room where he was perched. Face to face with him I would feel awed. I can't help thinking that if Picasso had trotted along the rue Jacob where the gallery is, and had seen this owl, HE would have taken the creature home without having to sell his studio to do it. And really the owl is cheaper than a Picasso sculpture....if you are inclined to make buying decisions that way.