Bacchus carriage

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1971

Sculptor: Antonio Ballester

Size (cm): 30

Porcelain Story

I am aware that I am touching on such a painful topic that I risk drawing on myself the fire of absolutely merciless (and, I suspect, quite fair) criticism. And yet I don't even try to restrain myself. I want to talk to you, my friends, about a topic that is very, very delicate for the subject of our attention - about alcohol in porcelain works. The theme, as you understand, is painful for someone, but for art it is eternal and irreplaceable. I confess that for all the eternity of this theme, porcelain compositions like the one presented to your attention are not so common. And the chinaware itself, which has been used for hundreds of years for eating and drinking various drinks, is just the least suitable for alcohol. For some reason.

That's how it has been for centuries. Somehow it did not work out to drink from porcelain glasses or cups, neither beer, nor vodka, nor whiskey, nor tequila, nor other strong drinks, for the use of which even glassware was quite suitable. Or maybe it has long been customary to value porcelain products and not expose them to the risk of being rashly broken by those who are able, as they say, to sort out strong drinks ...

I have already spoken once about the origin of the English tradition of drinking tea with milk. It was born at a time when porcelain products, delivered to Europe with great difficulty from China, were worth - in the full sense of the word - worth their weight in gold, when the Elector of Saxony could give away an entire unit of well-trained dragoons for a few Chinese porcelain services. That is why, in order not to risk such expensive products, the British decided to drink hot tea, first pouring cold or slightly warmed milk into porcelain cups.

But now it's not about milk. But about alcohol. One of my subscribers posted a far from sad message about the death of a resident of Barcelona, ??who, for the past 70 years, has been drinking at least 1.5 liters of homemade wine every day. And from this unrestrained drunkenness, he eventually died. At the age of... 107 years. For example, this unusual case did not cause admiration for me. I generally have a bad attitude towards everything unproblematic. And even more so for drinking. But I partly believed in this story. Because, as the great satirist used to say, the use of strong drinks in small doses is useful in any amount ...

By the way, jokes are jokes, but I know from my own experience: the advice of well-known cardiac surgeons to periodically alternate taking pills with taking 30 grams (no more!) of cognac has not harmed anyone yet. The joke of one of the Facebook users that he is ready to regard quitting drinking at this difficult time for the country as a betrayal of the motherland can really cause a kind smile. But to abuse the gifts of Bacchus (captured in this very rare work), believe me, you should not.