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Sunday, September 1, 2024

Wall Plaque, Marylebone, London


 Wandering the streets of a city is endlessly entertaining. Walk down a side street and you may discover a seemingly random bit of ornamentation remaining from when a building was first erected. Set into a brick wall, this potted apple tree has all the design hallmarks of the years when Oscar Wilde was still tossing off bon mots. I wonder if it is terra cotta and whether, under all that tasteful fog gray paint, there might be original now-unfashionably-bright colors. No matter---it survives. In its current monochrome, we can still enjoy the simplified dimensionality of this remaining example of late Victorian design.