November 29, 2007: Qing Dynasty Vases
 

http://cellar.org/2007/Vases.jpg


What lovely vases these are, wouldn't you agree? These priceless Qing Dynasty artifacts (i.e., dating from the 1600s, for those who aren't up on their Ancient Eastern history) are on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Well, not priceless exactly. They are estimated to be worth between £200,000 and £300,000. And they are only recently back on display, having been out of the public eye for almost two years.




Because in January 2006, a poor gentleman named Nick Flynn tripped on his shoelaces.

http://cellar.org/2007/Vases_broken.jpg


Not a bad restoration job! The initial cleanup operation took two and a half days. Better make sure you have every little sliver, right? Then the pieces were slowly taped back together by a professional restorer, bound with a special adhesive, and given a new coat of enamel.

Along with the dramatic return debut came a shiny new display case, as seen above. It would seem the museum has found a more appropriate item to display in its completely unprotected window niche on the staircase.

omg...imagine smashing those vases...although he probably got into a lot less trouble than I did for smashing mum's crystal one.

Oooopsies! I wish someone had been there with a camera to capture the facial expressions as it happened.

Anyone enjoy jigsaw puzzles?
I guess the restorer loved this job, a real challenge for their skill (on a big budget).

Stupid place to put a vase, but this sort of thing is not unusual. I had a job at a university library where one day I had to help a manager remove a painting from the wall in a stairwell because someone had woken up to the fact that it was worth perhaps $20,000 ... no protection whatsoever... with grubby teenage students all around.

Is it just my sleepy eyes or does the one in the center look to be little cockeyed at the top?

:)

"cockeyed".

who the fvck came up with that phrase? Does one look unbalanced when one has a cock in the eye?

Don't tease me like that! Now I'm just dying to know what that item is!! :rolleyes:

If there's a cock in an eye, there is either two unbalanced people involved, or one very limber unbalanced person. ;)

Papa Smurf keeps trying to insert his cock in my ear. I put up with his antics... but if he tries to stick it in my eye, rest assured it will be his ass that will be cockeyed thereafter.

So the restorer had to put *three* vases back together out of the jumbled mass of shards? Fuck.