I stared at
the vase with some trepidation. It was small, not even big enough to hold
flowers. It looked like it was a drinking vessel, really. The style made me
think Greek, but it was unadorned with any kind of drawings, not that that was
unusual.
But the vase
had been broken at some point in its life. That was made clear by the, well,
welds of precious metal that now held it together. The lines of metal were
highly polished and beautiful, following every line where the pottery had
broken before some craftsman had put it back together.
I looked
again at the scrawl Max had written about the vase: “Small vase, holds 3 cups
of liquid. Once broken, then Kintsugi.”
I had done
extensive research into Kintsugi, discovering it was a Japanese process to fix
pottery and lacquerware good as new, or even better. They used precious metals
like gold and silver to fill in the gaps and seal everything back together. It
really was quite beautiful. I had gotten used to looking at the various pieces
on the Internet with their gold, silver, or brass lines, but the small vase in
front of me had lines of gold, silver, and a third metal. Instead of each
individual line made of one particular metal, and just filled in with whatever
else was handy, these lines were sandwiched. Gold on the outside, closest to
the pottery, then silver, and then the third metal, and then reversing the
order back to gold on the other side.
I kept
looking at the third metal. I actually didn’t know it was metal, but it looked
like metal, except it was a bright, azure blue, almost the color of lapis
lazuli. And then there was the pottery itself, a brilliant white. It
practically glowed with its purity.
I wondered
what it would be like to drink from it. Perhaps it would bestow some kind of
power or health, like in that Indiana Jones movie. Just as easily I could see
the vase stealing away my soul or poisoning whatever came out of it.
“Better
just to leave it alone for now, Matt,” I said to myself. But a part of me
couldn’t help but wonder.
Maybe . . . maybe when I have more time I
can have some tests run.