Cup

Country: Denmark

Manufactory: Royal Copenhagen

Date of establishment: mid-twentieth century

Size (cm): 29*11

Porcelain Story

In collecting, sometimes absolutely incredible things happen. You know this is when you find iconic works of Spanish porcelain masters, for example, in Great Britain, Chile or the Scandinavian countries, and a very rare product of the famous Danish manufactory is brought to you by accident from the same Spain. By the way, we are talking about this cup.

For those who are familiar with Danish porcelain (one of the very first in Europe!), the style of products, colors and not very specific, as if a little blurry, details make the porcelain works of Danish masters recognizable literally from afar. That's why I was so surprised when I saw this product. It doesn't look like Denmark at all! And the colors are not the same, and the hand-painted, reminiscent of the work of the Dutch porcelain makers, is not the same ... Moreover, since this product was released in a limited edition, the numbering is put down not only on the bottom, as is usually done, but also on the inside of the curly covers. That just never happened! And this once again confirms the uniqueness of this delicate, beautiful, solemn product.

When my old friend (who, in fact, brought this beauty for me from Spain) and I began to discuss what purpose this cup was intended for, we both unwittingly came to the paradoxical version that it could be a vessel for, excuse me, a funeral dust. Even an empty tablet in the hands of an angel seems to imply the placement of the name of a departed person on it...

So, on this very day, December 20, 1987, the world's largest shipwreck in peacetime occurred, resulting in the death of more than 4 thousand people. This tragedy happened as a result of the collision of the Philippine passenger ferry ''Dona Paz'' and the huge tanker ''Vector'', carrying oil products and gasoline. With absolutely clear weather at 22:30 local time, passing through the Tablas Strait near the island of Marinduque, a passenger ferry crashed into a tanker at full speed.

As a result of the collision, hundreds of tons of oil products were spilled, which were transported by the tanker. The outbreak of fire quickly spread not only to both ships, but also to the vast expanse of water around them. Panic broke out on both ships. As it became known later, both crews of rare sea slobs were drinking beer in their cabins at that time. There was only one confused member of the crew on the captain's bridge of the ferry. Life jackets turned out to be closed in the premises, the keys to which nobody managed to find in a panic. Lifeboats were sloppily thrown overboard in disorder, where they capsized and immediately began to burn, engulfed in merciless fire.

Thousands of ferry passengers rushed across the decks of the almost twice overloaded ship, not seeing an opportunity to escape. After all, it was impossible to stay on board a ship in distress, and a sea of fiery elements raged overboard. Soon both ships sank in the Tablas Strait. The ferry Doña Paz two hours after the collision, and the tanker Vector four hours later. The Philippine authorities became aware of the incident only after eight hours. The search and rescue operation, organized with great delay, yielded deplorable results. Only 26 people were able to get out of the water. Of these, 24 were ferry passengers and two were tanker crew members.

Later, the investigating authorities managed to establish the exact number of victims of the tragedy - 4386 people. Philippine President Corazon Aquino called the incident a "national tragedy". Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Japanese Prime Minister Noburu Takeshita delivered official condolences.

I don't want to end this post on a sad note. But we have to admit that often our life depends on insurmountable circumstances dictated by people for whom the burden of responsibility is nothing more than an empty phrase. And in such cases, we can only trust in the will of God.