I spent my morning coffee time writing an explanation of how to wear a watch chain and fob in answer to a reader inquiry the other day only to find that, as happens all too often, he had mis-typed his email address. And though I am tempted to re-use that work, I should not subject the 99.9% of my readership that will never have a reason to wear a pocket watch to such arcana.
The exercise did however remind me of Lucius Beebe's 1935 Herald Tribune column stating that the well-dressed gentleman wore a fouet on the end of his watch chain, said device being a small whisk intended to eliminate carbonation from champagne. I do not intend to demean Mr. Beebe, whose lifestyle I only wish I could emulate, but this strikes me as an example of unclear on the concept if I have ever heard one. Originally invented to remove inadvertent secondary carbonation, the fouet may have filled a need until perhaps the start of the 20th century. But why on earth would any man go to the trouble to de-gas a modern wine that was designed to sparkle, thereby undoing all the work required to add bubbles in the first place, when he could simply order a still wine? Such are the mysteries of life.
In turn this reasoning led me to a consideration of champagne, to which I say bring it on generally. But given that we were considering Russian leather the other day, it occurred to me that I have never mentioned Hiedsieck's 1907 Diamant Bleu cuvée, 2,000 bottles of which were found in 1998 in the wreck of a freighter sunk in the North Sea on its way to the Czar during the first world war. Being still highly drinkable the stuff has come to a better end than the Romanovs and it has been sold at auction around the world, averaging a price in excess of $3,000 a bottle. That is the very definition of obscurity as none of us is likely to ever come across it of course, but it makes for a good story nonetheless.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.
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8 comments:
Please publish the pocket-watch advice - if only "pour encourager les autres"...
I sometimes like to wear a pocket watch with my vested suits. I'd be glad to learn if I'm doing it correctly.
I would like to third the request for advice on pocket watches.
Oh, come now, gentlemen, how hard can it be? T-bar through button hole, watch in pocket, fob dangling from the T-bar, chain draped elegantly across the vest. I mean, even I can figure that out.
However, do keep up the obscurantia, Will. It may not be pertinent to any lifestyle I might ever attain but it is fascinating!
From my understanding, there was a time in champagne's history when the carbonation was not that well worked out: the bottles would regularly explode, the glass was shoddy, the seal leaky, and the process required to produce small, tight bubbles was poorly understood. During these dark ages, champagnes would come along with large, greasy bubbles that detracted from the wine's enjoyment. Perhaps the article refers to such dark days when some of the bubbles in the bubbly were ugly.
The Albert chain may be put through the regular buttonhole today, but in times past a special vertical, slightly larger button hole was made on a waistcoat to accommodate it.
Now, the only thing to put this matter to rest is for Will to publish.
I, too, would like to read the post...I have "time" for it.
Seconded, thirded, and fourthed! Please publish the watch chain article! I wear a pocket watch with surprising regularity, but would be glad to know more of the subtleties of the watch chain.
Fred
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