Desert dwellers

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1982

Sculptor: Salvador Furió

Size (cm): 53*51

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

Never in my life have I had to ride a camel. Not on a double-humped, much less on a single-humped. Although there were many opportunities. And in Egypt, and in Turkey, and in Thailand, and in Israel, and in Tunisia. By the way, during a vacation in Tunisia, often in the evenings with my small children at the time, we went for a walk to an ancient fortress, miraculously preserved in excellent condition. And there, eccentric men in long striped dressing gowns walked along the shore, insistently offering to experience the conveniences of this exotic method of transportation. Somehow not convinced. The children were frankly afraid, and I never even thought of trying myself as a camel rider.

True, once (it was already five years after visiting Tunisia), my children and I rested in the Crimea. And we went on an excursion to Mount Ai-Petri. It turned out that the local organizers of tourist walks on very tortured camels are much quicker than their Tunisian counterparts. They didn't ask if we wanted to ride or if the kids were afraid of heights. They just deftly, in one movement, threw our sons on their uncomplaining animals and rushed away from us at a shallow jog. A few minutes later, they just as quickly returned and just as resolutely offered to pay 200 hryvnias for each trip. The guide accompanying us politely offered not to bargain. Yes, we already knew...

By the way, I first saw this fabulously beautiful composition in an antique shop in Toronto, Canada. Of course, I didn't buy it. Because even then I could not imagine how one could get into the cabin of an aircraft with this huge box. And there was no thought to hand over such beauty in luggage. On the other hand, I learned from one of my familiar diplomats the reason for the Canadian interest in these exotic two-humped "ships of the desert." It turned out that many millennia ago, camels came to Eurasia through the Bering Isthmus from North America, where there were many of them in those distant times. Huge herds of long-haired camels grazed in North America! ..

Well, I bought this composition, ironically, many years later at one of the online auctions in the same Canada. And this was the second (and last) time when the work presented to your attention caught my eye. She's pretty damn good...