The old car

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1987

Sculptor: Salvador Debon

Size (cm): 39*45

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

How long I dreamed about this procelain piece!.. More precisely, I didn’t even dream of it, knowing full well that it was almost impossible to find it. Looking at the cover of the most famous publication about my favorite Spanish manufactory and the family that created this manufactory, I could only admire the picture of the old car, depicted in the most prominent place. I understood that this work, despite a fairly decent circulation, sold out instantly and had long since settled in private collections, inaccessible to the eyes of lovers of porcelain art. In any case, I have never been able to admire this beauty with at least one eye, not even live, and even at auctions.

Years passed. Our collection has grown. The number of carriages and cars assembled in it also increased, which I conditionally, for myself, attributed to representatives of the ''transport shop''. There were so many of them - large, beautiful, surprisingly finely detailed by the skillful hands of talented craftsmen, and absolutely accurately conveying the historical truth of each model - that one could dream of creating a separate hall in the future museum dedicated only to cars and carriages. But... But among them, as before, there was not one car, without which this significant part of the collection seemed incomplete to me.

And suddenly, a few years ago, a long-awaited vintage car appeared on one of the English online auctions. True, at first its appearance did not cause me much joy, because this lot still had to be won in the fight against unknown competitors from different countries. But it happened!

And then the problems started. The English seller again, as had happened before, wanted to give out the work only from hand to hand. My son, who was then finishing his studies at the University of Leeds, went to pick up a box with a product to give it to our old Manchester friend Stuart, who was flying out to the football game with Dynamo. Transferred. And Stewart - a clever man, a connoisseur of a dozen European languages, a traveler with great experience - at the airport handed over a box with a fragile rare porcelain work in ... luggage!

Restoration cost me an amount comparable to the purchase. The bitterness of experiences was forgotten. Every time I meet Stewart with joy, especially when he greets us with the words ''Glory to Ukraine!'' Almost without an accent, the car took its place in the collection. The restored fragments are almost imperceptible... Well, in general, yes.