Instead, give way to the process: plates served on a flower-bedecked lacquer tray, one after the other offering surprises and the taste of the now.
"I didn't actually see all the reactions straight away [after leaving the brand] because I was in Japan at the time; one of my best friends had taken me on something of a spiritual trip to observe people who make traditional lacquer and obi belts; it was such a privileged environment … On the other side of the world, there was this violent announcement being made".
BG It's in the arse end of Terry & June-ville, it's not much of a looker – gaudy black lacquer and frilly gold upholstery – but this seemingly bog-standard suburban Chinese serves dim sum to rival more lauded joints up west.
We learn not only how the light fell from the windows, but how it reflected from the carpets and brocades that vied for attention with the netsuke nestled on green velvet in their black lacquer vitrine, and how it grew greyer when wartime privations in Vienna limited the cleaning of the glass.
His staff applauded and the fame grew of the hairdresser who did not lacquer, backcomb or tease.
A week after Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, delivered one of the worst speeches of his career, Mr Cameron gave one of his best.The former PR man is a natural set-piece performer, but often provides more lacquer than depth.
The northern province of Ninh Binh, a couple of hours' drive south of Hanoi, is home to the largest number of Catholic churches north of the old border, including the famous Phat Diem, a cathedral in traditional pagoda style, all wood and lacquer.
Here, though, it is laid out flat, showing every detail: from the pale new moon, edged in powdered gold and lacquer, down to the last leafy branch.The curators have been careful to select pieces that highlight the connections between the regional courts and the centre, and between China and the outside world.
When the museum refused Dame Jessica's request for an octagonal lacquer box, claiming it had been taken to Taiwan by Chiang Kai Shek in 1949, one of the curators was able to cite an article from a Japanese journal locating the piece in the Palace Museum, and it was produced.
In a 2004 study in Britain, June Freeman, a sociologist, found that the farmhouse kitchen, of natural wood and terracotta, was the preferred model for 41% of her sample, beating hands down the designer kitchen in "high-gloss aubergine and black lacquer", which only 11% favoured.So the kitchen has come full circle.
And in 1993 he introduced a non-toxic water-based lacquer for the pencils, a comfort for those who insist on chewing as they create.Although pocket calculators did away with the slide-rule, once part of Faber-Castell's product range, the count's tenure has been marked by his insistence that traditional writing tools still have a place in the internet era.
