And Mine Were Separated

Rarely do the flea market gods dangle success with such promise, only to yank it away, as they did to me one recent weekend at Alemany. By not counting my chickens, I've generally innoculated myself against the emotional highs and lows that haunt the intrepid investigator who seeks his fortune among the soiled piles and broken dreams of this recycled, second-hand world. This time, unfortunately, I broke my own rule.

The egg in question is a white glazed ceramic pitcher or tea pot designed around 1937 by Paul Schreckengost for the Gem Clay Forming Company in Cleveland. Paul Schreckengost is the brother of Viktor Schreckengost, one of the most celebrated American industrial designers of the mid-20th century. Viktor made ceramics, the first banana-seat bicycle, and lots of other amazing things. Paul is largely remembered for this art deco masterpiece, which he supposedly made as a Christmas present for the employees of Gem Clay.

I grew up hating design. My parents were big folk art and antiques collectors, and one of the ways they tried to keep their marriage from imploding—which it eventually did anyway—was to distract themselves on Sunday afternoons by rearranging their collection like deck chairs on the Titanic. I was commandeered to do the lifting and my discomfort during this process contributed, I'm sure, to my disdain for the world of objects as a sullied version of the higher and more beautiful world of ideas that I began to explore as a teenager.

Art Deco's hyper-masculinity, emphasis on geometry, and reverence for technology, which I discovered in my late 20s, was the Trojan Horse that brought me back down to the earthly world of things and design. I've since moved on to more conceptual and political kinds of objects, but I'll always have a soft spot for the Tom Swift designs from the 1930s and 40s, eerily the time of my parent's youth.

When I saw the outline of the bulbous, streamlined pitcher on the folding table against the rising dawn that day I made for it quick-like. Usually objects that advertise their art deco genes this broadly are revival objects from the '70s and '80s. But as the sun rose I could sense the age in the faint black veins that had begun to appear beneath the pitcher's white skin. As in some old movie illustration of time travel, the calendar pages began to flutter in reverse until I was back in that land of kitchen aprons, picket fences, brimmed hats and color-saturated magazines.

At $30 it was a no-brainer. When I got back to my car, I could just make out the company's name impressed underneath. This is where it got ugly. iphone brought me to a website that identified Schreckengost's authorship: Bing! iphone brought me to the websites of important museum design collections: Bing! Bing!  iphone brought me to a website that proclaimed a $15,000 auction return: Bing! Bing! Bing!

I know you're thinking that when I got home I found a hairline crack. Wrong. I scoured the pitcher for damage from its journey through time like a novice tele-transporter on Start Trek, ensuring that his body was still intact. Everything was okay. Unfortunately it turns out that Schreckengost designed a tiny chromium-plated top that matches the metallic speed lines on the pitcher's edge to sit DISCONNECTED atop the spout. A strange and utterly impractical decision by the god-like designer, given the top's tiny size and how perfect the pitcher looks single and alone. And if he had to make a top, should he not at least have designed a hinge?  For how could this mouth and its cover, even though connected as intimately as two inanimate objects could be, ever stay together over time without some more profound bond? And mine were forever separated. God it hurt when that sunk in.

Oh well.  Cancel the flight to Paris.

The Paul Schreckengost pitcher with all its parts together.

 

 

 

Comments

[Broto]

Google is still my frtoaive search. Nothing seems to get in the way vs Bing. I mean what's with the enter a search term alt text that pops up over the search box when i want to type in my search that's annoying and interferes the view of what is being typed into the search box. You did not ask but I also prefer to use Chrome Browser.

[new era baseball caps]

Nice to very useful info for me.Because i'm new in blogging and i'm need good tutorial like your post

[snapback hats wholesale]

Good article, it makes me very interested. Thank you for your sharing.

[justin bieber shoes]

Plus I always had a homeroom and all the paperwork that entails.

[remote spy]

I'm hopeful we see some additional functionality pulled into these records down the road, as I'm sure you are too...

[keylogger for Mac]

Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright....lol.

[Louboutin Flat Men]

Love you share article * * * youth is priceless * * *
If you want to retain youthful vigor, you have to take regular exercise.

[justin bieber shoes]

It is rediculous to even suggest that. It is not fair to take the actions and ideas of group of people.

[cheap beats by dr dre]

connected to our Source

[tee shirt pas cher]

Aller pour quelqu'un qui vous fait sourire, car il suffit d'un sourire à faire un jour sombre semble prometteur .... lol.

[chaussure gucci]

That’s a great post. Thank you so much.

[Carmen]

A colleague rnceetly emailed me a copy of the Lead Letter in Science magazine, May 7, 2010, entitled Climate Change and the Integrity of Science. My friend is a scientist, he is a believer in AGW, and he thought the letter was authoritative. I, on the other hand, am only a Philosophy instructor. But, I must say that every time I read that letter, I get angrier and more disgusted. With the publication of this letter (a despicable, lowly political hack job), the magazine and all the signers relinquish all claim to scientific integrity. There is not one solid thing to hold onto in this letter. This letter is full of the most foul ad hominems, it whines and plays the victim, it makes vague complaints and vague accusations (omitting any particulars, so that any reply would be impossible), begs the question by simply making bold assertion, illegitmately uses appeal to authority and appeal to concensus, whitewashes the climategate affair (calling it McCarthy-like to attack their friends, again without bothering to mention specific charges like stonewalling FOI requests). They even have their own version of Pascal's wager, though it is a wager about the truth of AWG, not about the existence of God. Can you find it? They even smear some of my heroes like Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein, seeming to suggest that they were in it to build reputations and gain recognition. NO! These were men possessed by the quest for scientific truth and understanding. Any person who cannot see that discourse on this level has no place in scientific debate is a person who has no moral integrity. I am going to deconstruct this stupid letter line by line, and maybe you all would like to sign a copy and send a complaint to the so-called Science magazine, to the U.S academy of sciences, and maybe even one to Inhof and the Attorney General of Virginia. So,here is your assignment. If you are smart enough to know that AGW is true, are you smart enough to locate the ad hominems in the Integrity of Science letter, and are you smart enough to say why such fallacious reasoning has no place in scientific discussion? By the way, you don't need a Ph.D. in Philosophy or a statement by the American Philosophical Association to know that ad hominem is scum-bag argumentation and that it is wrong. Cheers.[DC: The wide difference of opinion between you and your scientist colleague is a microcosm of the gulf between scientists and some portions of the general public. It also appears that you have no objection to the initiatives of Senator Inhofe and the Virginia Attorney General. You are entitled to your opinion, however ill-informed it may be. However, I must warn you in advance that your initial comment is already overly long, and it certainly would be unacceptable to post a "line-by-line" critique. So please publish it elsewhere, and if you like you can point to it here. Thanks! ]

[Shymon]

Plus 2 Fliters I just dropped evrnythieg in the middle of cooking supper to come write this review. I hate the lid design. It falls off 70% of the time when you're pouring or trying to flip it open to fill it. There is no mechanism to hold it on- save gravity now how do you think that works when pouring or applying pressure to flip it open? Further, when you fill it even a drop too full, the overflow is directed through a dip in the lid to a hole in the hollow handle, which fills up and drains out the bottom of the handle. This also happens if you tip it while full (like carrying it to the fridge). Nice stream of water dribbling down your leg, etc I really think they didn't test this in practical application. Execs should be forced to use them for a month before marketing them.

[chaussures Air Max TN]

สวัสดีผมตื่นเต้นมากที่ฉันได้พบหน้าบล็อกของคุณผมคิดว่าคุณโดยบังเอิญในขณะที่ฉันถูกค้นหาใน Yahoo สำหรับอย่างอื่น Anyways ฉันอยู่ที่นี่ตอนนี้และเพียงแค่ต้องการจะบอกว่าขอบคุณสำหรับการโพสต์ที่ยอดเยี่ยมและตลอดทั้งสนุก บล็อก (ฉันยังรักชุดรูปแบบ / ออกแบบ), ฉันไม่ได้มีเวลาในการอ่านผ่านมันทั้งหมดในขณะนี้ แต่ฉันมีหนังสือที่ถูกทำเครื่องหมายแล้วยังเพิ่มฟีด RSS ของคุณดังนั้นเมื่อผมมีเวลาผมจะกลับไปอ่าน อื่น ๆ อีกมากมายกรุณาอย่าให้ทันงานที่ยอดเยี่ยม

[personalised aprons]

Good article, it makes me very interested. Thank you for your sharing.

[web design company]

you are entitled to your opinion, however ill-informed it may be.

[bangkok holiday packages]

It was a neatly written article and I appreciate your efforts in sharing it here.

[Trip]

To Lacey: We did grow potatoes when I was litlte. They were fairly easy to grow, but they take quite a bit of space. I think I read on the internet about growing them in 5 gallon buckets. You could google that if you were interested. When we move after my hubby gets out of the Navy I might plant some fruit trees, but for now I would never see them get to produce anything. Thanks for the award I will swing by to get it soon.

[Thainara]

Yes, it's hard to drink enough water, espiceally in the winter. It's tempting when I'm exhausted from being up at night to go for juices or tea/lemonade during the day instead of water, but all that extra sugar can wreck havoc on mom and baby in the form of yeast infections/thrush, so water is really best not to mention that coffee and tea are actually dehydrating. After my second child was born, I became dehydrated but didn't realize it. I was struggling with dizziness and eventually started to think something was seriously wrong with me. On the 5th visit to my family doctor (!!!), he noticed that my urine specific gravity indicated that I was dehydrated. I started drinking more water, and wa-la no more dizziness. I look back and think duh .' but at the time, I THOUGHT I had been drinking enough. I did exactly what you do got my own dedicated 2 qt. pitcher for the fridge! Now, I am still nursing our third and am newly pregnant with our fourth so drinking enough water is often on my mind. I found a great water bottle made by Thermos that has a small band around the neck with six tabs.' You can twist the neck to click' into the next tab to remind yourself the # of times you have filled the bottle each day. It works for me if the kids don't play with the cool click-able neck band. It would make a great product review and give-away, Kim! I bought it for $9.99 at Staples, but it's probably available elsewhere to! Unlike my old wide-mouth Nalgene bottle, this bottle has a narrow drinking area, which is a lot more graceful and doesn't result in water sloshing down the front of my shirt if I'm drinking while in the car on a bumpy road! It also has a snap-down lid that locks' in place, so there are zero leaks or spills when it's shut.[] Reply:August 5th, 2010 at 4:34 pmI should be talking to Thermos. []

[Shiori]

This is such a timely post for me! I am relaly good in the beginning because I have a hard time establishing a good milk supply, but once things get easier I am not as diligent as I should be. My youngest is not where he should be, weight wise, at his 4 month checkup and I realize that I have not been drinking enough water in the Texas summer while tending to 3 other children. I have a large Klean Kanteen that goes with me everywhere, but when we are at home sometimes I just don't stop to drink. Thanks for the reminder. I need to teach my older ones to say Mommy, step AWAY from the coffee! []

[Sara]

I can't do the water bottle thing. Drinking sips here acullaty makes me feel a little nauseous and water-logged. I've gotten into the habit of chugging an 8oz (+or-) glass of room temperature water every two hours (about as frequently as my 2yr old goes potty .it's a great reminder!) It acullaty helps me feel fuller and not as hungry come mealtime, and I'm not looking at my pitcher at the end of the evening thinking, Ughhhh I still have ALL THAT to drink?! It also helps me go to the bathroom during the day and less in the middle of night. Thanks for the great and effective advice Kimberly![]

[Cheap Beats]

We ejaculate to gratify and enjoyment our
lovers. Maybe you have ever believed which you have to have to
possess far better ejaculation in order to make sure you your
lover a lot more Cheap Beats By Dr Dre
http://31.222.203.124/

[holiday package to thailand]

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

[domain name registration]

The post is very informative. It is a pleasure reading it. I have also bookmarked you for checking out new posts. I wanted to thank you for this special read.

[Ramadhani]

I'm sure you can do this with a Nikon D60, but I always thhguot I would have a high speed camera? The only thing I can think of is to use a high speed shutter bc I've never tried to take pictures of a water droplet, but it seems a very interesting topic