Swordsman

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1974

Sculptor: Salvador Furió

Height (cm): 69

Porcelain Story

Once I mentioned this fantastically beautiful work, which collectors often call Musketeer. I mentioned it in passing, talking about how once your obedient servant clashed in an Internet rivalry on one of the American ''porcelain'' sites with an unknown to me then, but incredibly persistent rival. At stake were several absolutely amazing works put up for sale by one of the relatives of the collector who passed away, without having time to either instill in loved ones a love for porcelain, or even explain to them the value of his collection.

There were a lot of rare compositions put up for sale, and most importantly, almost each of the works appeared on the Internet for the first or, perhaps, only the second time in decades. That is why such a sharp struggle for the right to own them unfolded at that time. As it turned out later, all this Internet rivalry during the 28 days of the auction ''tournament'' I was with my old friend from Kyiv, who also decided to replenish his collection with a part of the exhibited works. Then there were the conversations...

And now I will explain why the image of this musketeer so sunk into my soul. During a visit to Malta, at one of the demonstration performances, a brilliant performer (in exactly the same outfit!) demonstrated mastery of a sword that I had never seen before. Together with the members of our group, I watched, with my mouth open in surprise, how the participants in the staged action restored the events of bygone times at the main gate to the ancient Maltese fortress. Either when Malta was fighting against the Turkish conquerors, or already freeing itself from the English yoke...

In general, I must tell you, the island of Malta made an indelible impression on me. And with its unique relief, which, like a geographical map, spread out before our eyes, forming a single picture of small towns with temples in the center, between which they ran like bright toy buses. There, in general, everything was like a toy - houses, castles, squares. Everything, except for the steep impregnable shores, on which the waves of the sea crashed.

By the way, it was in Malta, or rather, on the second largest Maltese island of Gozo, where we traveled by a large ferry, that I first saw houses in the doors of which the keys left by the owners demonstratively stuck out - there for hundreds of years, according to the local guides, were no burglaries... This is how I remember Malta, as if in memory of which this wonderful musketeer remained in our collection.