Domino

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1970

Sculptor: Fulgencio García

Size (cm): 28*18

Porcelain Story

This figurine is one of my favorites. It is almost 50 years old, but it is perfectly preserved. Created in biscuit, the composition, it seems to me, more gently conveys all the tenderness with which the sculptor sculpted the image of a little harlequin who took off his shoes from his right foot and dozed off right on the floor, at the foot of the column. The age of the work is also indicated by the absence of a blue brand mark. The brand of the famous Spanish manufactory, recognizable by all, appeared a little later. And on this work, one of the first variants was recorded - in the form of the letters Lladro, as if scratched out. And this sign, included in all reference books, gives the work a special value.

I accidentally found this figurine in one of the antique shops in Dusseldorf, Germany. And I decided to buy it not only because it somehow immediately sunk into my soul, but also as a memory of one of the very painful trips to Germany. It was this year in the 1997th or 1998th. I remember exactly that back then in this country it was necessary to pay in German marks, which means that this was even before the introduction of the European currency.

My wife and I came to Berlin for a consultation with a famous German eye surgeon, according to whose textbooks, as we learned a little later, future ophthalmologists studied at medical universities throughout the Soviet Union. The consultation was short. After looking at my darned eyes, the professor offered to immediately perform, in his opinion, not a very complicated operation. Moreover, this proposal was made in such a decisive form that we did not even have the thought to doubt the need for a surgical procedure. An employee of the Ukrainian embassy helped us to communicate with the professor, who also decided to rely on the experience of the famous specialist together with us.

The professor decided to perform the operation to strengthen the cornea of the right eye using the latest cryo equipment, assuring us of the complete safety of the procedure. I won't go into too much detail about how it all happened and how it ended. It all ended badly - not having calculated any special regimen, this famous professor safely ... burned my cornea! Yes, yes, it burned. When already at the hotel we realized that the situation had become serious, we again rushed to the clinic. The professor was not there, and without him, none of the doctors even wanted to examine me ...

Immediately, on the next flight, returning to Kyiv, I went to the eye microsurgery center, where Sergey Rykov and Natalya Pasechnikova, at that time young but quite experienced Ukrainian specialists, not yet burdened with high medical ranks, did what German celebrities could not do . They did it for a long time, painfully (in the full sense of the word for me), but they did it brilliantly. For which I will always be grateful to them.

As it turned out later, this incident marked the beginning of a stage in my life that is commonly referred to as the domino principle. One after another, stories rained down on my head, one more painful than the other. Either a car accident, or a severe leg injury while playing football, or a broken jaw that happened during a tooth extraction ...

I often look at this beautiful boy from our collection - and quietly enjoy life. To be honest, out of my old habit, I enjoyed life even during all these upheavals and trials, realizing that each time everything could have ended much worse than it actually ended. I do not get tired of repeating that God puts on each of us exactly as much as we are able to carry. No more and no less. And do you know why I not only believe, but know for sure that the more painful and difficult in some situation, the definitely better? Because it only says that soon the trouble will end. And the most wonderful thing about any trial is its completion. Especially if everything ends well.