She Smiles at an Insect

The notebooks of an antiques dealer

She Smiles at an Insect

And for more than a century, it still hasn’t flown away. Come and meet her: turn the pages, she is waiting for you.

A story from Alexandra Antiques

A Secret on Her Shoulder

She isn’t looking at the camera. She is looking at a tiny gilded-bronze visitor perched on her shoulder, and she smiles the way you do when someone has just trusted you with a secret.

Butterfly, dragonfly, bee on holiday? We are still debating it at the shop. Personally, I think it flew around the world to land right here, and decided this shoulder would be its home for life. We all have a friend like that.

The curls, carved one by one.

The visitor, motionless for over a hundred years.

Alabaster, the Stone That Drinks the Light

It doesn’t bounce the light back; it swallows it gently, then gives it back a little warmer. That is why her face seems lit from within, as if she had just thought of something very kind.

A small precaution: alabaster is delicate. It dislikes water, hurried clumsy fingers and overenthusiastic feather dusters. But treated gently, she will repay you for another hundred years, like all good friendships.

In profile, she is still smiling.

The back often tells the truth.

Walk Around Her, It’s Allowed

I always look at objects from behind. People too, actually, but that is harder to explain.

Here the drapery falls in broad folds, the headband circles her head, and the grey-veined marble base holds her like a little storm cloud that has calmed down. White, grey, gold: elegance that has no need to shout.

And Right at the Bottom, a Name

An engraved signature, barely visible, almost shy: Carli . The artist didn’t dare say too loudly that it was him.

She is attributed to A. Carli, Auguste Carli (1868–1930). I like to think he spent hours on that smile, then signed at the foot of the bust telling himself “well, that will do.” It did.

Her signature, just above the marble.

The Day She Got into My Car

Mons Marché Biron In a beautiful house in Mons, in the middle of a beautiful collection of French antiques, there were many lovely things. But only one spoke to me. Her.

She made me think of a child looking for a cosy home, a little warmth, someone to take her in their arms. Not someone already counting what she will bring in.

So she came home with me, sitting beside me in the car. I nearly fastened her seatbelt.

I am an antiques dealer, one has to make a living! But I love my objects. They give me tenderness, satisfaction and love, far more than a simple livelihood. I always find it hard to part with them, and if I had a big house, they would all be at home with me.

So if you would like to adopt her, just promise me a well-lit spot by a window, and a little good morning each day.

In a Few Words

Subject: Young girl with an insect

Material: Alabaster, marble base

Visitor: Gilded bronze

Origin: Mons, Belgium

Signature: A. Carli (1868–1930)

Bust: 30 cm

Base: 10 cm

Total height: 40 cm

She Is Waiting for Someone to Tell Her Secret To

She is watching for you at the Alexandra Antiques shop, at the Marché Biron. Come and say hello: she is very well brought up.