Dragon (gold)

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 2014

Sculptor: Francisco Polope

Size (cm): 74*70

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

We visited the United Arab Emirates for the first time a long time ago. Then our eldest son Dima was not even two years old. And now he has already graduated from the university and went to work. So it was a long time ago. So long ago that if we compare the photographs of the capital of the Emirates, taken by us then, with the pictures of modern Dubai, we get not just ''two big differences'', as they say in Odessa, but absolutely two different cities!..

This is something that has always made me sad. Especially after several visits to a small museum, which briefly and clearly showed the short and clear history of this Arab state - from the time of wandering through the sandy desert of unfortunate nomads who did not know where they could settle down to at least feed their families and give them water to drink until the time of rapid prosperity associated with the discovery on this sun-scorched land of large reserves of oil and something else there. At the exit from the museum, every time I was finally finished off by the sight of a wretched wagon, which used to serve poor Arabs as both a home and a means of transportation. This wagon hurt my eyes as a symbol of people's desire to move from poverty to wealth and prosperity - against the backdrop of the events that have taken place in our Ukraine over the past decades, when we were gradually turning from a country with a powerful economic potential into a third world country...

Of course, our problems could always be logically explained, especially if talkative craftsmen were taken for explanations. Either the financial crisis around the world, then the crop failure, now the war ... And all this is true, and all this is convincing. But do you know what (absolutely subjective!) I saw as the success of such an incredibly rapidly developing Emirates? And I have been there many times over the years. So, it seemed to me that the government of the country by one or several families is not so bad, when the whole meaning of their government comes down to almost the only, most important thing - what you leave behind. The rulers of the Emirates do not behave like temporary workers, chosen for one or two short terms, when during these terms it is necessary to have time to ''solve'' all issues. They think that tomorrow their descendants can be held accountable for their today's mistakes, and for their today's successes tomorrow, their well-to-do subjects will thank their children and grandchildren.

Someone may object in response: after all, they found countless deposits of oil, but what do we have? Firstly, their deposits are not so innumerable. And, well aware that they will soon end, the leaders of the country have long ago tried prudently to create a powerful infrastructure for the trade and tourism business that will feed them in the future. Secondly, should we complain about natural resources, having the best black earth in the world and a unique geographical location, which, with skillful management of this alone, can bring stable dividends to the whole people? Not to mention our many other natural and scientific riches...

Of course, this conversation is not for one hour. Moreover, you have probably been wondering for a long time: what does the golden Chinese dragon, created by the hands of the wonderful Spanish sculptor Francisco Polope, have to do with it? The fact is that I already had such a dragon of red (as it always seemed to me, classic) color for a long time. And I could not get enough of it, because it is not only beautiful, but also, as they told me during a trip to China, it brings happiness and prosperity to the house in which it is kept. But, when during my last visit to the Emirates I saw a golden dragon and found out that its limited series was already ending, I suddenly wanted to provide a couple for the old red dragon that I could not resist replenishing the collection ...