…and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
This oil painting by Chris Buzelli is a truly inspirational interpretation of the well-known Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Middle English ‘pertriche’ (now partridge) was a derivation of Perdix, one of Athena’s Sacred Kings. Thrown into the billowing seas from a tower, his goddess carried him to heaven in the shape of a bird.
Perdix was the bird, Athena the pear tree. As such, she had been worshipped in Boeotia as Once, Mother of All Pear Trees. Perdix, the meaning of whose name was originally ‘The Lost One’, had been known as ‘Lord of the Pear Trees’ in his Holy City of Badrinath (Himalayas). Thus, the pear tree carried a masculine/feminine implication throughout Eurasia.
This imaginative work hints of the billowing sea, the glimpse of heaven, the curves of entwining arms of safety and the pear droplets of love’s tears. The passing lovers are dwarfed by the story and significance of the tree.
Peter Carl Fabergé (originally Carl Gustavovich Fabergé) the celebrated Russian court jeweller turned the humble egg into 69 magical works of art. His creations were many and fabulous. Here he blends the egg with the tree and makes enchanting allusion to the pinecone.
Donoyer Canes are turning their own mythical trees into works of fine art in the cane world. Their house tree is nestled into encircling petals, lotus in inspiration.
White, red or yellow gold, or platinum, the tree is protected by their cocoon, (the same metals or silver), which carefully presents a comfortable knob to hold as much as a work of art to wear. It too is masculine/feminine in implication – an accessory, an object of desire and beauty suitable for men and women alike.
You do not need to be a Tsar or a Tsarina to personalise your own tree. If you are Canadian and feeling very patriotic, you can have a maple tree in red gold and have it custom-dusted with diamonds and rubies to be true to your national colours. There is the majestic Lebanese cedar, the pine (Christmas) tree, with a powdering of diamond snow and moonstone or pearl pear droplets to recall the beauty of the above story or the joy of presenting a rare objet d’art at special moments of the calendar.
There is a new Palm Island in Dubai. Why not a palm tree encrusted with emeralds inside the lotus cocoon? The variations are endless.
For inspiration, go to the Dubai International Exhibition Centre to see Index Dubai 2008Â and discover Donoyer canes at stand 2E255 (Hall 6) from 3-7th December.
Rare woods make up the cane itself. I illustrate snakewood and ebony.
Donoyer cane with African ebony shaft.
If you happen to be in Switzerland, you can find them in Geneva.
Donoyer cane with South American snakewood shaft.
Chronométrie Kunz SA
Rue du Mont-Blanc 1
1201 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel. (+41) 22 738 16 00
Fax (+41) 22 738 16 32
Monday to Friday:
9:30 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Saturday:
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“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is
more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles
the world.” –Albert Einstein
The Fascination for Pharaohs
A new Egyptian museum is being created close to the pyramids and the Sphinx is undergoing a major facelift. Egyptology is contagious. Who cannot be amazed by the monumental architecture, the imagination of the engineers (still not fully understood), the planning and organisation of the reigns of those whose main earthly purpose was to plan their exit from it?
It is normal to observe monarchs with sceptres and sticks in their hands. The long staff, a weapon as much as a useful prop, is omnipresent in Egyptian art, but so is what we would call the cane. Long or short, alone or in each hand and crossed over the chest, the majestic cane lends grandeur and superiority.
It always has done. There is no carved statue or sarcophagus portraying a likeness holding a cane that can lack this element. Dignity and leadership are deposited by the winds of time just as the sands build up the dunes and the desert that engulfs its treasures for thousands of years.
Yet the Pharaohs and their mysteries make excellent reading. Every year new books and travel guides flock onto a thirsty market. Larousse’s Fine-Art edition boasts the following this year, complete with maps and reconstructions.
Le monde des Egyptiens, (The World of The Egyptians) overseen and directed by Marie-Ange Bonhême and Luc Pfirsch. Larousse, 2008, 360 p., 49 €, ISBN: 978-2-03-583311-2
I’d also grab a copy of Fodor’s Five Thousand Years of Civilization to brush up on my Pharaonic Egyptian knowledge and the recently newly edited Cairo Travel Guide from the same publisher and series.
What could be better than to go and see for one’s self? You’d need to take two canes, of course. One for walking in the dessert and another for being elegant and majestic in the best that Cairo’s nightlife can offer!
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Joseph, Overseer of the Pharoah's Granaries' by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1874
